With its iconic cathedral scorched but still standing, France on Tuesday launched an investigation into what triggered the Notre Dame inferno and how a fire that had probably started by accident could gut the symbol of a nation.

As the smoke cleared from the sky Tuesday, it was almost possible to look head-on at the church — to see its carved statues and two rectangular bell towers — and imagine that all was intact. Much of the valued art and relics had been saved. Even the exquisite stained glass windows remained in place, seemingly immune to the previous day’s flames.

But that belied the somber accounting of all that had been lost, and how the religious and architectural landmark at Paris’s center had been altered. The church’s trademark steeple, part of the Parisian skyline since the mid-1800s, had been swallowed in the flames. Char and smoke marks licked portions of the walls. And the roof — constructed with centuries-old wood — had been destroyed like tinder, leaving gaping holes that let sunlight shine into the cathedral Tuesday.

Officials warned that Notre Dame may still have gravely dangerous vulnerabilities, especially in the soaring vault. But a few government officials ventured inside, and camera footage showed charred rubble in front of the still-intact pews.

In an evening address to the nation, French President Emmanuel Macron described the firefighters as heroic, and said he hoped the country would reconstruct Notre Dame within five years — a more rapid timetable than that put forward by experts.

“We now have to get things done,” Macron said. “We will act, and we will succeed.”

He said the rebuilt cathedral would be “even more beautiful.”

From around the world, more than $700 million in private donations poured in for reconstruction, while both Parisians and tourists lined the Seine, bearing witness at bridges where police cut off access to the site.

France’s interior minister said more than 500 firefighters had been mobilized Monday to help extinguish flames that had cloaked the sky in smoke. But questions remained about whether any warning signs had been missed.

Paris Prosecutor Rémy Heitz laid out a timeline in which a first alarm went off at 6:20 p.m., but no evidence of fire was found. Only when a second alarm went off — 23 minutes later — was fire detected.

“In the meantime, the church was evacuated because a Mass just started a bit earlier,” Heitz said.

A spokesman for the Paris prosecutor later clarified that it was church staffers, not fire fighters, who looked into the initial alarm.

Patrick Chauvet, the Notre Dame rector, told French radio that the cathedral’s “fire watchers” were on constant lookout and three times each day made “assessments” in the vulnerable area under the wooden roof.

“In terms of security, I doubt we could have done more,” Chauvet said.

Buildings like Notre Dame — full of hidden nooks and passages, composed of timber and old materials — are seen by fire prevention experts as particularly risky, especially when they are under renovation. Stewart Kidd, a consultant on so-called heritage buildings in Britain, said that in old structures, by the time flames become visible, “they may have been burning for an hour” in unseen spaces.

And when there is construction, Kidd said, “the building is exposed to all sorts of dangerous activity.”

French officials said they do not suspect foul play. Heitz said were no indications that the blaze was started deliberately. Investigators plan to interview people from the five companies that were doing renovation work at the site. Before the fire, part of the Gothic structure had been encased in scaffolding.

The Notre Dame cathedral was built over centuries, starting in 1163. It was partially consumed in just hours Monday, as thousands of Parisians stood sentinel, singing “Ave Maria” and weeping at the sight.

“Parisians lose their lady,” read one French headline. In Strasbourg, the city’s great cathedral tolled its bell for 15 minutes Tuesday morning in solidarity.

There were no deaths in the fire, but two police officers and one firefighter were injured, officials said.

Culture Minister Franck Riester said on French radio early Tuesday that much of the cathedral’s art and artifacts had been saved. The 8,000-pipe grand organ survived the flames — though whether it had suffered water damage was still to be determined. Riester also confirmed that firefighters had rescued the church’s two most hallowed relics: the crown of thorns said to have been worn by Jesus and a tunic of Saint Louis, a 13th-century French king.

The objects would be transferred from Paris City Hall to the Louvre, Riester said.

“It was necessary to bring them out through the smoke,” Paris Fire Commander Jean-Claude Gallet told BFMTV. He said firefighters rushed into the chamber of the cathedral at the height of the fire to make the rescue.

The cathedral’s stained-glass rose windows, an ensemble that dates to the 12th and 13th centuries, are also likely intact, said André Finot, a cathedral spokesman.

“It’s a bit of a miracle. We’re very relieved,” he told BFMTV.

Vittorio Sgarbi, a Rome-based art historian, said that Notre Dame, even before the fire, had been an architectural mish-mash — some parts original, but many parts added or replaced.

“This is going to be a fateful event in the story of a non-authentic building, a sort of laboratory,” Sgarbi said.

Even as the fire still burned, France was making plans to rebuild the church. Experts predicted that reconstruction could take a decade or more — in contrast to Macron’s goal of five years.

The effort was supported by Pope Francis, who on Tuesday called the fire a “catastrophe” and described on Twitter a desire that the damage would be “transformed into hope with reconstruction.”

On Tuesday morning, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo floated the idea of an “international donor’s conference” that would unite philanthropists and restoration experts in Paris to raise money for targeted purposes in rebuilding Notre Dame.

Many philanthropists needed little prompting. French luxury magnate François-Henri Pinault declared that his family would dedicate about $113 million to the effort. The family of Bernard Arnault, chief executive of the LVMH conglomerate and the richest man in Europe, pledged $226 million. The Bettencourt Meyers family behind L’Oreal matched that offer. Companies including Apple and the French oil giant Total made pledges of their own.

“I am not religious myself; I’m an atheist,” said Charles Gosse, 23, a business school student who launched an online funding campaign and quickly raised $27,000. “But this is beyond religion. It is a national monument like the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.”

In their account of the fire and rescue effort, firefighters told local media that after the first call came in, they had to get through rush-hour traffic clogging the banks of the Seine.

The flames quickly spread from the top level of the nave, eating up one beam, then another, in a portion of the roof called “the forest,” because each massive support was carved from an entire tree. The 750-ton spire, which was originally constructed in the 13th century and rebuilt in the 19th out of oak covered with lead, toppled shortly before 8 p.m.

At the height of the effort to combat the blaze, which raged for about nine hours, firefighters trained 18 hoses on the church, according to local media accounts. They pumped water straight from the Seine, the grand river that traverses Paris and closely abuts Notre Dame.

A number of the people who came to see the remnants on Tuesday said they were prompted by their faith. France, though officially secular, remains predominantly Catholic, and even many non-believers are still baptized and married in churches.

“I’ve been a Parisian for 62 years,” said city-native Alix Constant, a medical secretary. “When I saw the images of the fire, I had the need to see it with my own eyes. And even more so because I’m a practicing Catholic.”

Longtime Paris residents said they had a hard time comprehending the destruction.

“I’m a believer,” said Carine Mazzoni, 48, a lawyer who said her son was confirmed at Notre Dame. “It’s Easter week. It’s a symbol of Paris and a Catholic symbol. It’s the history of the world that’s united in this building.”

Birnbaum reported from Brussels. Griff Witte and Quentin Ariès in Paris and Stefano Pitrelli in Rome contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/notre-dame-cathedral-fire-paris-updates/2019/04/16/6f8b40c2-5fc6-11e9-bf24-db4b9fb62aa2_story.html

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(CNN)Authorities are searching for an armed woman in connection with alleged threats that led to lockouts at Columbine High School and nearly 20 other Colorado schools, officials said Tuesday.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/16/us/columbine-high-threat/index.html

    Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of the first Muslim women in Congress, has drawn a lot of controversy in her first few months in office — moments that Democratic donors seem to want to support her through.

    According to Omar’s Federal Election Commission report filed Monday, donors have rushed to show their support for the Minnesota Democrat by helping her raise more than $830,000 last quarter.

    It’s been a trying quarter for her. In February, she was accused of anti-Semitism after she criticized pro-Israel lobbying in the United States. After pushback from both Republicans and Democrats, the House of Representatives voted on a blanket resolution that broadly condemned anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim discrimination, seen as a rebuke to the first-term Congress member.

    More recently, Omar was under attack for saying “some people did something” when commenting that all Muslims should not be held responsible for the acts of extremists during 9/11. In response, President Donald Trump tweeted a provocative video that stitched together clips of Omar and the falling Twin Towers. Since then, Omar said she has received an influx of anti-Muslim insults and death threats. Fellow Democrats have stood up for her, condemning Trump for inciting violence against Omar.

    Donors have also stood up for Omar by donating to her campaign. More than half of the money she’s raised comes from donors who contributed less than $200. Despite only having received a total of $10,000 from PACs, her haul from individual donors puts her among the top Democratic earners this quarter. In comparison, Democratic leaders such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer raised about $650,000 and $600,000, respectively.

    And while fellow first-term progressive lawmakers have also received considerable donations, they lag behind Omar. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) raised about $720,000, while Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) only raised about $300,000.

    Omar’s FEC report speaks to her strong position for 2020 — at least financially

    So far, Omar’s campaign has only spent about $241,000, leaving her with more than $600,000 in cash at her disposal. That sets her up well for her first reelection campaign in 2020, particularly if Democratic voters remain as engaged as they were in the first few years of the Trump administration.

    More than 70 percent of Omar’s donations — $631,000 — were raised through ActBlue, a platform that lets individuals donate to Democrats online, according to Politico. The platform has significantly helped the party’s fundraising efforts, and Omar’s numbers show how effective digitalizing donations can be.

    Omar also received donations from Democratic colleagues House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn and Ocasio-Cortez, two of her most vocal advocates. Clyburn, who contributed $1,000, defended Omar during the anti-Semitism controversy, commenting on how her experience as a refugee has shaped her perspective. Ocasio-Cortez, who donated $2,000, has made her support for her fellow progressive candidate crystal-clear as well.

    This is the kind of support Omar will probably need to keep her seat. And although Trump is trying to make Omar a household name by invoking Islamophobia, his rapidly dropping approval rates in Minnesota suggest his tactics are no longer effective.

    Source Article from https://www.vox.com/2019/4/16/18410602/ilhan-omar-fundraising-trump

    Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, officially launched his White House campaign on Sunday. If he is successful he will become the youngest and first openly gay president of the United States. In these nine clips, ‘Mayor Pete’ covers his religious beliefs, the seven languages he can speak and why running as a millennial candidate is a good thing
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    Source Article from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp4Ix39emTo

    The Trump administration intends to announce Wednesday that it will allow U.S. citizens to sue companies doing business in Cuba, according to a senior administration official.

    Marking another break from Trump’s predecessors that threatens to upend relations with allies, the administration plans to enforce a provision of a 1996 law known as Helms-Burton that allows Cubans who fled Fidel Castro’s regime to sue companies that have used their former property on the island.

    CUBA CITES LACK OF EVIDENCE IN MYSTERIOUS SONIC ATTACKS ON DIPLOMATS

    Every president since Bill Clinton has suspended the section of the act that would allow such lawsuits because they could snarl companies from U.S.-allied countries – like the U.K., France and Spain – in years of complicated litigation that could prompt international trade claims against the United States.

    The senior administration official said going forward, there will be no more waivers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the official announcement.

    The Trump administration has signaled plans to end the waivers. It’s taking the step in retaliation for Cuba’s support of embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the U.S. is trying to oust in favor of opposition leader Juan Guaido.

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    White House National Security Adviser John Bolton plans to deliver a speech in Miami — home to thousands of exiles and immigrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua – criticizing those governments as a “troika of tyranny.”

    The speech at the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association is being delivered on the 58th anniversary of the United States’ failed 1961 invasion of the island, an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government.

    Fox News’ Kellianne Jones and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-administration-to-allow-lawsuits-over-seizures-of-us-property-in-cuba

    Image copyright
    Getty Images

    Image caption

    The museum’s Hall of Ocean Life is sometimes rented out for external events such as galas

    The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) has said it will not now host an event at which Brazil’s leader Jair Bolsonaro was due to be honoured.

    The museum drew heavy criticism for agreeing to host a ceremony at which Mr Bolsonaro, who has advocated relaxing environmental policies, was scheduled to receive a person of the year award.

    Museum officials said the event would now be held at a different location.

    They said that the museum in New York was “not the optimal location”.

    How did this row erupt?

    The Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit non-governmental organisation that promotes trade, investment and cultural ties between the two countries, hired the museum’s Hall of Ocean Life for its annual gala to be held on 14 May.

    At the annual event, the chamber gives out its person of the year awards. This year one of those prizes is going to Mr Bolsonaro, who was sworn in as Brazil’s president on 1 January.

    On its website, the organisation said it had chosen the far-right leader in recognition of “his strongly stated intention of fostering closer commercial and diplomatic ties between Brazil and the United States and his firm commitment to building a strong and durable partnership between the two nations”.

    Previous recipients of the award have included former US President Bill Clinton and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

    What were the objections?

    Climate activists and environmental organisations such as Greenpeace have denounced Mr Bolsonaro as “a threat to Brazil’s ecosystem”.

    Image copyright
    AFP

    Image caption

    Greenpeace has been a vocal opponent of President Bolsonaro

    Most of those opposed to having the museum host the event pointed to the president’s plans to open up parts of the Amazon rainforest for development, which they argued was not in keeping with the museum’s mission.

    In a radio interview on 8 April, President Bolsonaro said he wanted the US to join in a development plan for the Amazon region. He also said that demarcations of indigenous reserves hampered development of the region and that he would abolish them if he could find a way to legally do so.

    New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said President Bolsonaro was a “very dangerous human being”.

    Mr de Blasio told radio station WNYC. “He’s dangerous not just because of his overt racism and homophobia, but because he is unfortunately the person with the most ability to be able to impact what happens in the Amazon going forward.”

    Scientists with ties to the museum threatened to resign if the event went ahead and many made their anger public on social media.

    What did the museum say?

    When the controversy first broke last week, the museum tweeted that its hall had been booked “before the honouree was secured”.

    A day later, and after almost 3,000 people had commented on the tweet, most of them expressing their concern over President Bolsonaro’s environmental policies, the museum tweeted again, thanking people for their thoughts.

    On Monday, the museum announced its decision to cancel its hosting of the event.

    It is not yet clear where it will be held. President Bolsonaro has not yet reacted to the change of venue.

    Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47946955

    An American tourist is hopeful that the “magic” of social media will lead her to two people she spontaneously photographed just one hour before the Notre Dame Cathedral went up in flames on Monday in Paris, in a bittersweet image that has since been declared a “historic” shot.

    On April 15, Brooke Windsor took to Twitter to share her plea in a post that has since gone massively viral. In the image, a smiling man is about to lift and swing a jubilant little girl in front of the 800-year-old landmark.

    “I took this photo as we were leaving #NotreDame about an hour before it caught on fire. I almost went up to the dad and asked if he wanted it. Now I wish I had,” Windsor wrote online of the heartbreaking scene. “Twitter if you have any magic, help him find this.”

    INSTAGRAM COUPLE RESPONDS TO ‘STUPID’ INFINITY POOL PHOTO CONTROVERSY

    As of Tuesday morning, 23-year-old Windsor told the BBC that she had not yet been able to identify the pair, whom she believes may be a father and daughter, or related in some other way.

    Windsor did not immediately return Fox News’ request for comment.

    Though many commenters have questioned the Michigan woman regarding why she thinks the two share a parent-child relationship, she said their suspected familial bond was evidenced by “simply the dynamic I observed from them while debating on interrupting this moment,” as per BBC.

    The emotional tale has since touched the hearts of many Twittizens, who have since graced the post with over 95,000 shares, 190,000 likes and 950 comments.

    “This has easily become my favorite photograph of Notre Dame. I hope you find the father in the photo,” one commenter wrote. “So we hope.”

    “This is going to become THAT photo,” another agreed.

    “I hope Twitter does have some magic, that is a great picture,” another offered.

    “This photo is not only a keeper, it’s historic,” one proclaimed.

    “So sad to see the building looking [serene] and safe in the sun,” another opined. “Just before this dreadful disaster.”

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    “You’re going to find this daddy and his little girl. I just know it. Beautiful photo,” an optimist said.

    “I agree. The stunning picture against an iconic backdrop,” another lamented. My heart breaks for the nation of Paris.”

    Located on the Ile de la Cite in the center of Paris, the Gothic cathedral, which dates back to the 12th century, attracts millions of tourists each year. It is home to incalculable works of art and is one of the world’s most famous tourist attractions. It was also featured in Victor Hugo’s novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.”

    On Monday night, two-thirds of the cathedral’s roof was ravaged by the blaze, which is being investigated as an accident.

    The flames collapsed the cathedral’s spire, which had been shrouded in scaffolding as part of a $6.8 million renovation project on the spire and its 250 tons of lead.

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    It was not immediately clear what caused the fire. Sources told Fox News that it appears the blaze, which came one day after Palm Sunday and during Holy Week, was related to construction being done at the cathedral.

    In the hours since, French billionaire François-Henri Pinault, husband of Salma Hayek, pledged almost $113 million to rebuild the historic site.  Bernard Arnault, owner of the luxury goods group LVMH, also pledged $226 million toward reconstruction efforts.

    “It is what our history deserves,” French President Emmanuel Macron told a sorrowful crowd as he vowed to rebuild the cathedral. “It is, in the deepest sense, our destiny,”

    Fox News’ Lucia I. Suarez Sang, Nicole Darrah, Samuel Chamberlain, Danielle Wallace and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/travel/tourist-searching-for-people-in-historic-notre-dame-cathedral-photo-taken-one-hour-before-fire

    Sen. David Perdue said he backs President Donald Trump’s threat to release immigrants apprehended at the U.S. border into “sanctuary cities” in Democratic strongholds. 

    Perdue said Monday that Trump’s comments were aimed at spurring Congressional action to stem “an explosion at the borders and exploding illegal drug traffic” at the border with Mexico.

    “I don’t understand why the cities are trying to stand against the federal law,” he said of local governments that adopted sanctuary policies. “What the president is saying is right – there is an absolute five-alarm crisis at the border. It’s not just human trafficking, it’s drug trafficking.”

    Perdue’s remarks came after he gave a speech at a tea party rally in Atlanta as he prepares to run for another term in 2020. The Republican has long positioned himself as one of Trump’s most loyal allies, a stance Democrats hope to turn into a weakness.

    Georgia law has long prohibited cities and counties from adopting a sanctuary policy, but some local leaders have announced decisions to limit cooperation with federal authorities and embraced “welcoming” policies. 

    Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has championed that approach. She signed an executive order last year barring the city jail from holding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees – earning a rebuke from Vice President Mike Pence.

    And over the weekend, she used exceedingly harsh terms to condemn Trump’s idea. 

    “To turn the clock back to an era when certain segments of society were treated as property is immoral,” she wrote on Twitter. “This fearmongering is feeding the rise of hate crimes in our country and is nothing more than a xenophobic game of partisan politics. We are better than this.”

    <!–

    –>

    In the interview, Perdue was asked if he still supports the policy if those detained immigrants were moved to Atlanta. He shifted his criticism to cities that ignore federal immigration policies, and brought up an undocumented immigrant who was charged – and acquitted – in the death of Kate Steinle in 2015.

    “That’s the unconscionable thing that happens when these people think they’re doing the liberal thing – good people suffer for that,” Perdue said. “And that’s what I think most people want to end.”

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    Source Article from https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/perdue-stands-trump-threat-send-immigrants-sanctuary-cities/EXUDb2TikekmeDjfGpRyFL/

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    (CNN)The husband of a US Army soldier killed in combat was detained and deported to Mexico last week by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement even though he had been granted permission to stay in the US, according to his attorney.

      Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/16/politics/ice-deports-husband-of-dead-veteran/index.html

      Mayor Pete Buttigieg has only officially been in the presidential race for one day, and the South Bend, Indiana politician has already raised big bucks.

      James Murdoch, considered the more moderate of conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s sons, donated $2,800 to Buttigieg last month, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filingsthat’s the maximum an individual can give to a candidate.

      ABC Studios TV Writer Peter Nowalk also donated $2,800. Other major Hollywood contributors include Ken Olin, Jane Lynch and Mandy Moore.

      The 2020 Democratic contender raised more than $7 million in the first quarter of the year, his campaign announced Monday.

      Though he hadn’t officially tossed his hat into the ring last month, Buttigieg got a big boost in name recognition when he appeared at CNN’s Democratic Presidential Town Hall at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas.

      After weeks of anticipation, he made his candidacy official at a rally Sunday in South Bend.

      “My name is Pete Buttigieg. They call me Mayor Pete,” Buttigieg said at the rally. “I am a proud son of South Bend, Indiana. And I am running for President of the United States.”

      The 37-year-old politician is a Harvard grad, Rhodes scholar, Navy veteran and he speaks seven languages.

      Source Article from https://deadline.com/2019/04/hollywood-donates-to-mayor-pete-buttigieg-1202596571/

      Mr. Sanders is counting on small donations to fuel his presidential bid, as is Ms. Warren, who has sworn off holding high-dollar fund-raisers. Ms. Harris has a strong base of online donors, but she has also raised significant sums from traditional donors. Some candidates, such as Ms. Gillibrand, Senator Cory Booker and former Gov. John Hickenlooper, relied heavily on larger donations.

      Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/us/politics/campaign-finance-2020-fundraising.html

      Analysts say Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg and the company were slow to take responsibility in the crashes of two 737 Max planes within months of each other.

      Anna Moneymaker/Bloomberg via Getty Images


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      Anna Moneymaker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

      Analysts say Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg and the company were slow to take responsibility in the crashes of two 737 Max planes within months of each other.

      Anna Moneymaker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

      After a second 737 Max jet crashed in less than five months, it took Boeing weeks to speak openly about the role its flight control software may have played. Then on April 4, CEO Dennis Muilenburg said: “It’s our responsibility to eliminate this risk. We own it.”

      Critics say Muilenburg and Boeing waited too long to say it.

      Questions about the safety of the 737 Max trace back to Oct. 29, when an Indonesian Lion Air flight plunged into the Java Sea. At the time, Boeing issued a terse statement extending “our heartfelt sympathies to the families” of the 189 victims. It said initial investigations showed the downed 737 Max had faulty data from a sensor.

      But Boeing also said the same plane flew with the same faulty sensor a day before — and a different crew managed to keep control.

      Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management, says Boeing’s response bordered on pointing a finger at pilots overseas. “There was a question as to whether or not the pilots followed the right routines initially and if they were properly trained,” he says.

      In the wake of the crash, Boeing put out a bulletin to emphasize what pilots should do in case of a faulty sensor. It did not mention that the sensor feeds an automated flight control software feature called MCAS that was suspected of forcing the Lion Air plane into a nosedive. The FAA certified the 737 Max to fly without requiring pilots to train on or even know about MCAS.

      After that business as usual resumed, and orders kept pouring in for the 737 Max, the fastest-selling jet in the company’s history.

      Then on March 10, a 737 Max flown by Ethiopian Airlines crashed, with 157 casualties.

      Over the next two days, countries from China to Europe grounded the planes.

      But in the U.S., Boeing’s CEO announced that the company was developing an update to its MCAS software, and that the FAA did not require any further action. And Muilenburg even called the White House to say there was no data to support grounding the planes.

      Erik Bernstein, vice president of Bernstein Crisis Management in Monrovia, Calif., says this reaction may have aimed to protect Boeing legally. “You don’t want to say something that is then translated in a court of law as an admission of guilt,” he says.

      He says that, in the short term, the tactic could also have financial benefits.

      “I would assume that they were selling those planes up to the day they got grounded, or at least attempting to,” he says. “They’re keeping business partners and investors from being spooked.”

      Boeing says it was not avoiding responsibility, but rather waiting for the facts to emerge.

      “Airplane accident investigations are a tragic, horrific and sad undertaking, but they must be underpinned by fact and data,” said Boeing spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

      Richard Levick, CEO of the Washington-based communications firm Levick, says Boeing’s response did not go over well. “They weren’t personal. They weren’t empathetic. They were speaking like engineers and they weren’t very visible,” he says.

      Levick says Boeing didn’t convince the flying public of the plane’s safety. A telling moment was when Kayak.com offered passengers an option to filter out the 737 Max from their flight options.

      On March 13, three days after the second crash, the U.S. government did ground the planes, saying it had new information linking the two accidents.

      And shortly after, Muilenburg recorded his first video message on the 737 Max crashes.

      “We’re taking actions to fully reassure airlines and their passengers of the safety of the 737 Max,” he said.

      But he still tiptoed around what caused the crashes.

      The turning point was when Ethiopian authorities released a preliminary report on April 4. Transportation Minister Dagmawit Moges said the pilots had followed Boeing’s directions.

      “The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer but was not able to control the aircraft,” she said.

      This is where Muilenburg’s public posture shifted. In a carefully worded message, he acknowledged that MCAS had added extra risk to the cockpit.

      “As pilots have told us, erroneous activation of the MCAS function can add to what is already a high workload environment,” he said. “It’s our responsibility to eliminate this risk. We own it, and we know how to do it.”

      “We own it” has since become a catchphrase for Boeing.

      Last week, Muilenburg spoke at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas and told a crowd that recent weeks “have been the most heart-wrenching of my career.”

      “These recent accidents have intensified our commitment to continuous improvement as we design, build and support the safest airplanes in the sky,” Muilenburg added. “That’s what we do at Boeing. We own it.”

      It was a safe audience — Boeing has donated millions to the George W. Bush Institute, and Muilenburg didn’t take questions. And Muilenburg has not given a press interview since the second of the two crashes.

      Still, Bernstein says Muilenburg has taken a baby step in the right direction. “And I think that opens them up to really get a lot more compassionate with their communication,” Bernstein says.

      There is a downside. Houston attorney Nomi Husain is suing Boeing for negligence on behalf of a victim’s family. He says Muilenburg’s new approach of taking responsibility gives ammunition to his case.

      “This admission I think helps us clear the hurdle of negligence,” Husain says.

      Boeing must get its software fix and extra pilot training approved to get its planes back in the air. Once that’s done, perhaps the new transparency will help convince passengers that the 737 Max is safe to fly.

      Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/04/16/713483867/boeing-slow-to-own-recent-air-disasters-analysts-say

      WASHINGTON — Some of the more than one dozen current and former White House officials who cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller are worried that the version of his report expected to be made public on Thursday will expose them as the source of damaging information about President Donald Trump, according to multiple witnesses in the investigation.

      Some of the officials and their lawyers have sought clarity from the Justice Department on whether the names of those who cooperated with Mueller’s team will be redacted or if the public report will be written in a way that makes it obvious who shared certain details of Trump’s actions that were part of the obstruction of justice probe, people familiar with the discussions said. But, they said, the Justice Department has refused to elaborate.

      Of particular concern is how Trump — and his allies — will react if it appears to be clear precisely what specific officials shared with Mueller, these people said.

      “They got asked questions and told the truth and now they’re worried the wrath will follow,” one former White House official said.

      Some of those who spoke with Mueller’s team, such as former White House counsel Don McGahn, witnessed Trump’s actions up close and were privy to key moments in the obstruction investigation and spent many hours with investigators.

      One person close to the White House said there is “breakdown-level anxiety” among some current and former staffers who cooperated with the investigation at the direction of Trump’s legal team at the time.

      There is also concern that new facts in the report could be disclosed that do not reflect favorably on the president, two people familiar with the discussions said.

      “You have a whole bunch of former White House officials and current White House officials, but especially former White House officials, who were told to cooperate,” the former White House official said. “So people went and did that, and now the uncertainty is just how much of that information is going to be in that report and how identifiable to individuals is it going to be. And nobody knows.”




      Another person familiar with the discussions said the officials who are worried are those who said negative things about Trump. This person said the “million-dollar question” swirling around Trump world is how much of the report will be redacted, specifically if it will be a “net plus or minus” 100 pages of the more than 300-page report.

      Fueling officials’ concern is that Attorney General William Barr hasn’t been clear about what the report might entail. Barr has said he wants to make as much of the report public as he can, while also making clear parts of it will be redacted for grand jury testimony, classified information and material that could affect ongoing investigations. He also said information that could “infringe on the personal privacy” and reputations of “peripheral third parties” could be redacted, a phrase unclear to some witnesses in the investigation.

      “Even if names are redacted or names aren’t in the report to begin with, it could be situations people were asked about and they answered truthfully that at least for some people — specifically the president — would be identifiable because the situation applies to just one person,” the former White House official said. “Nobody has any idea what this is going to look like on Thursday.”

      Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/04/16/white-house-officials-concerned-about-being-exposed-by-mueller-report/23712478/

      “The conflagration brought a feeling of helplessness and foreboding,” CNN’s Frida Ghitis says, “the sense — real or imagined — that we were watching a metaphor, a prelude, a warning.”

      As the Paris-based journalist Christine Ockrent notes in The Guardian, the church has been damaged, and rebuilt, before: “Notre-Dame de Paris will survive, and most of its treasures.”

      Modern methods — including three-dimensional mapping of much of the cathedral — may be able to help in its reconstruction, as some noted on Twitter. They cited a 2015 National Geographic story by Rachel Hartigan Shea. “The stunningly realistic panoramic photographs are amazingly accurate,” she wrote.

      In a time of turmoil for the larger Church, the destruction means something acute for Catholics, writes National Review’s Alexandra DeSanctis. “To many Catholics, it feels as if the Church is on fire in a sense already. And now we are watching it blaze,” she writes.

      Notre-Dame was a product of a particular cultural synthesis in Catholic history, my colleague Ross Douthat writes. “The Catholicism of today builds nothing so gorgeous as Notre-Dame in part because it has no 21st-century version of that grand synthesis to offer.”

      The Atlantic’s Rachel Donadio — a witness to the fire — and The New Yorker’s Lauren Collins — who visited the roof of the cathedral last month with some of those working to restore it before the fire — have more on Notre-Dame.

      If you are not a subscriber to this newsletter, you can subscribe here. You can also join me on Twitter (@DLeonhardt) and Facebook.

      Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

      Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/opinion/notre-dame-fire-paris.html

      House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Monday made a point to heap more praise on Democrats who flipped Republican seats in the 2018 midterms and downplayed representatives like herself and freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who carried districts where a “glass of water” with a “D” next to it could win.

      “When we won this election, it wasn’t in districts like mine or Alexandria’s,” Pelosi said. “[S]he’s a wonderful member of Congress as I think all of our colleagues will attest. But those are districts that are solidly Democratic.”

      To drive the point home she picked up a water glass next to her and said: “This glass of water would win with a ‘D’ next to its name in those districts.”

      Pelosi, who is traveling in Europe with a congressional delegation this week, made the comments during an appearance before the London School of Economics and Political Science.

      PELOSI MOVES TO ENSURE ILHAN OMAR’S SAFETY, CALLS FOR TRUMP TO TAKE DOWN VIDEO

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      Pelosi’s comment appeared to be her latest attempt to play down the influence of the Democrats’ progressive wing. During a Sunday interview with CBS News’ Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes,” Pelosi said that faction was “like five people.”

      Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pelosi-a-glass-of-water-with-d-next-to-it-would-win-ocasio-cortezs-district

      Jose Gonzalez Carranza was baffled when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up at his house on April 8, his attorney said. While he’d come to the U.S. illegally 15 years earlier, he’d been granted a reprieve from deportation after his wife, Army Pfc. Barbara Vieyra, was killed while serving in Afghanistan in 2010.

      But Gonzalez, 30, suddenly found himself hauled away to Nogales, Mexico — and separated from his 12-year-old daughter, Evelyn Gonzalez Vieyra, who is a U.S. citizen.

      “It didn’t make any sense,” said Ezequiel Hernandez, Gonzalez’s attorney, in an interview with The Washington Post. “If I was an ICE agent or a government attorney and I was told by my administration that I need to deport people, his would not be the first case to choose.”

      By Monday evening, hours after the Arizona Republic first reported on his case, ICE abruptly reversed course and returned Gonzalez to Phoenix, Hernandez said. Gonzalez’s fate is now back in the hands of the immigration court, the attorney added.

      ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The office of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) told the Republic that they were working with Hernandez and ICE to resolve the case.

      Gonzalez illegally crossed into the U.S. from Veracruz, Mexico, in 2004, the Republic reported, and married Vieyra in 2007.

      A first-generation American, Vieyra had dreamed of joining the U.S. armed forces since she was a girl helping her Mexican-born parents raise Jersey cows on a dairy farm outside Mesa, Ariz., according to the East Valley Tribune. One year after marrying Gonzalez, soon after Evelyn’s birth, she enlisted in the Army and became a military police officer, the Tribune reported. When she deployed to Afghanistan with the Fort Hood-based 720th Military Police Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade, she told her sister the sacrifice of leaving Evelyn behind would be worthwhile.

      “She always said, ‘I’ll be able to come back and it won’t be like I’ve missed her whole life. I’ll just have missed a part of her life but I’ll be able to give her a better life,’” Guadalupe, her sister, told the Republic at the time.

      But she never returned. On Sept. 18, 2010, enemy fighters in the Konar province east of Kabul attacked her unit with rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devises, killing her. She was 22.

      After her death, her husband was granted parole in place, an exemption under U.S. immigration law for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit” for the families of service members. Based on that ruling, Hernandez said, an immigration judge later canceled deportation proceedings against Gonzalez.

      But in 2018, ICE refiled its deportation case for reasons that remain unclear, Hernandez said. A judge then ordered Gonzalez deported when he didn’t show up for a December hearing — but the orders to attend had been sent to the wrong address, the attorney said.

      “We have evidence it went to the wrong address,” Hernandez said. “There were little errors throughout this case.”

      When Hernandez learned about the deportation order, he filed a motion to reopen Gonzalez’s case, triggering an automatic stay until a judge could rule. The attorney said he provided evidence of the stay to ICE, which was holding Gonzalez in a correctional center outside Phoenix. But on Wednesday, ICE deported him to Nogales.

      On Monday, the attorney alerted the Republic, which wrote a story that quickly churned up national outrage. “It’s the height of cruelty for ICE to deport the father of a child whose mother died while serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan,” Cecillia Wang, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Republic.

      A few hours after the story posted online, Hernandez said an ICE official called asking to be put in touch with Gonzalez, who had been staying in a shelter for recently deported people in Nogales.

      Soon after, he was brought across the border by Customs and Border Protection agents, taken to Tucson and then returned to Phoenix by around 7 p.m. on Monday, Hernandez said. The attorney said ICE did not explain to him their reason for bringing him back to the U.S.

      Gonzalez hopes to see his daughter again soon, Hernandez said. “He’s back to his regular life, for now,” Hernandez said.

      But an immigration judge will still have to rule on his petition to reopen his case. The attorney said he will argue that deporting Gonzalez would be unfair to a child who has already lost one parent.

      “There is extreme and unusual hardship on this little girl,” he said. “Not every deportation includes a child whose mom was killed in Afghanistan.”

      Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/16/ice-deported-widow-soldier-killed-afghanistan-attorney-says/

      People gather outside Nuss Truck & Equipment in Burnsville, Minn., on April 15 as President Trump arrives for an event to tout his 2017 tax law.

      Susan Walsh/AP


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      Susan Walsh/AP

      People gather outside Nuss Truck & Equipment in Burnsville, Minn., on April 15 as President Trump arrives for an event to tout his 2017 tax law.

      Susan Walsh/AP

      When the vaunted Democratic blue wall stretching across the Upper Midwest crumbled in Republican Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential victory, Minnesota stood out on the map as a holdout.

      Now President Trump sees the state as a personal challenge heading into the 2020 election, and his campaign is making it an early target.

      No Republican presidential candidate has claimed the state’s 10 Electoral College votes since Richard Nixon in 1972 — the longest blue streak in the United States.

      Trump acknowledged the Democratic hold on Minnesota during a quick stop there Monday to tout his signature tax law.

      “This has been a very special state. It has been a rare victory for Republicans. And we almost won it,” Trump said during a visit to a trucking company in Burnsville, a suburb of Minneapolis. He said the result would have been different if he had come more often: “One more speech.”

      Trump used the official White House event, which lasted just over an hour, to speak to local concerns. He addressed proposed mining and pipeline projects in the north, farmers’ anxieties in the vast agricultural parts of Minnesota and simmering tensions across the state over immigration. He told the friendly audience he would pursue a health care overhaul “after the election, assuming you elect Republicans.”

      If the 2016 race is a baseline, Trump starts his effort to flip Minnesota in better shape than any Republican in memory.

      Trump won 78 of the state’s 87 counties. But he still lost to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by just 1.5 percentage points. That’s in a state where considerably more third-party votes went to right-of-center alternatives — about 6 percent of the presidential votes cast — than those on the left.

      Trump’s losing margin was closer than any presidential race in the state since 1984, when home-state Democratic nominee Walter Mondale edged Republican President Ronald Reagan by a few thousand votes. Minnesota and Washington, D.C., were the only places that kept Reagan from a clean sweep.

      Minnesota Republican Party Chair Jennifer Carnahan said it all adds up to opportunity for Trump.

      “We know that the president has strong support from across Minnesota. I think his support is even stronger today than when he ran in 2016,” she said. “The more times we can get him back here, the better.”

      As the 2020 race ramps up, Minnesota is getting ready for its turn as a presidential battleground and all the candidate visits, ads and persuasion efforts that come with it.

      Vince Beaudette, 72, lives in Carver County, which is south of the Twin Cities. He came to the president’s stop at Nuss Truck & Equipment and is all in for Trump — red Make America Great Again hat and all.

      “The economy is going great. If Minnesotans understand the results that Trump has brought us. We’re all living a little better now. We’re all taking in more money, and many more of us are employed. Trump ought to win,” Beaudette said. “Can that message be delivered to Minnesotans? I’m not sure.”

      Not only have GOP candidates fared poorly in Minnesota in recent presidential elections, but no Republican has won any statewide race for any Minnesota office since 2006.

      So far there are no full-time Trump campaign staff members on the ground in Minnesota.

      But Trump is showing he won’t wait until the closing days of the race to rally supporters in the state, as happened in 2016 when he stopped by just days ahead of the election.

      He visited twice during the 2018 midterm campaign for raucous arena rallies. Two Republican congressional candidates whom he promoted — that and a super PAC aligned with Trump boosted with millions of dollars in spending — both won.

      But two of Minnesota’s Republican congressmen lost amid an anti-Trump mood in their suburban districts.

      Democrats are on guard.

      “Absolutely I think he can win Minnesota,” said Ken Martin, chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. “Do I think he will? I don’t think he will win Minnesota. Because we’re not going to take it for granted, and we’re going to be just as organized, if not more.”

      Martin said that his base is energized and that the Trump visits over the past year only add to the intensity.

      Trump is on defense in places like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Martin said Minnesota is a must-win for his party if Democrats expect to defeat the president.

      “The reality is that there is no map for Democrats winning the presidency that does not include Minnesota being blue,” he said.

      Dana Koletar of Minneapolis showed up to protest Trump’s latest visit. She’s upset about the president’s anti-immigrant language and that Trump has gone after her congresswoman, Democrat Ilhan Omar.

      “I’m just very disturbed by the backlash against her as a Muslim Somali-American woman,” Koletar said. “I do think that’s part of the reason she’s undergoing more scrutiny.”

      To Koletar, all the early talk about Trump’s ability to flip Minnesota is overblown.

      “If you look at our 2018 elections here in Minnesota, look who won the statewide races. It was the Democrats. There definitely is Democratic support. I think it’s just a matter of turning out those voters.”

      Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/04/16/713674276/trump-begins-effort-to-flip-minnesota-which-was-a-democratic-holdout-in-2016

      ”Bernie Sanders believes the most critical mission we have before us is to defeat Donald Trump,” said Faiz Shakir, Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager. “Any and all decisions over the coming year will emanate from that key goal.”

      Or, as former Senator Claire McCaskill put it: “One thing we have now that we didn’t in ’16 is the uniting force of Trump. There will be tremendous pressure on Bernie and his followers to fall in line because of what Trump represents.”

      But Mr. Sanders is also taking steps that signal he is committed for the duration of the race — and will strike back aggressively when he’s attacked. On Saturday his campaign sent a blistering letter to the Center for American Progress, a Clinton-aligned liberal think tank, accusing them of abetting Mr. Trump’s attacks, of playing a “destructive” role in Democratic politics, and of being beholden to “the corporate money” they receive. The letter came days after a website aligned with the center aired a video highlighting Mr. Sanders’s status as a millionaire.

      [Read more: The blowup between the Center for American Progress and Mr. Sanders’s campaign reflects ideological divisions among Democrats.]

      With other mainline party leaders, he is offering more honey than vinegar.

      Last month, for example, he used his first trip to Iowa as a 2020 candidate to quietly meet with Jeff Link, a veteran party strategist, and Patty Judge, the former state agriculture secretary, to discuss rural policy and politics, according to a Democrat familiar with the meeting. Mr. Sanders’s campaign also reached out to Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers and a top Clinton ally in 2016, to have her join them at what they dubbed an “Ohio workers town hall” on Sunday.

      “If anybody thinks Bernie Sanders is incapable of doing politics, they haven’t seen him in Congress for 30 years,” said Tad Devine, Mr. Sanders’s longtime strategist, who is not working for his campaign this year. “The guy is trying to win this time.”

      But such outreach matters little to many Democrats, especially donors and party officials, who are growing more alarmed about Mr. Sanders’s candidacy.

      Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/us/politics/bernie-sanders-democratic-party.html


      House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters said in a statement that the potential use of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes was a “very serious concern.” | Zach Gibson/Getty Images

      Financial Services

      House Democrats on Monday issued a subpoena to the German lender Deutsche Bank seeking information on President Donald Trump’s finances, a major escalation of their investigation into his business dealings.

      In addition to the Deutsche Bank subpoena, House Democrats subpoenaed other banks — including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup — seeking information on Russian money laundering. The issuance of the subpoenas was first reported by The New York Times.

      Story Continued Below

      The House Intelligence and Financial Services committees, which authorized the subpoenas, were expected to issue additional subpoenas targeting Trump’s finances soon, Democratic aides said.

      Democrats are ratcheting up their coordinated investigations into Trump’s business dealings as the Justice Department prepares to release findings from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe on Thursday.

      “As part of our oversight authority and authorized investigation into allegations of potential foreign influence on the U.S. political process, the House Intelligence Committee today issued subpoenas to multiple financial institutions in coordination with the House Financial Services Committee, including a friendly subpoena to Deutsche Bank, which has been cooperative with the Committees,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the House Intelligence chairman. “We look forward to their continued cooperation and compliance.”

      The subpoenas are the latest example of House Democrats‘ crossing the “red line“ Trump has drawn when it comes to investigators looking into his finances and business transactions. Trump‘s attorneys have already started fighting back, warning the accounting firm Mazars USA that it should not comply with a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoena seeking the president‘s financial records.

      Deutsche Bank has long been a top target for Democrats. The bank lent Trump hundreds of millions of dollars over the years for property development, and it has also been under scrutiny for its role in Russian money laundering. Democrats have said they want to know whether Russia has had financial leverage over the president via Deutsche Bank and other loans.

      Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee, said in a statement Monday that the potential use of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes was a “very serious concern.”

      “The Financial Services Committee is exploring these matters, including as they may involve the President and his associates, as thoroughly as possible pursuant to its oversight authority, and will follow the facts wherever they may lead us,” she said.

      Republicans — as expected — lashed out at the Democratic subpoenas, calling them part of “partisan fishing expeditions“ designed to hurt Trump and the GOP.

      “My colleagues across the aisle continue to politicize the banking industry and set out on partisan fishing expeditions,“ said Rep. Patrick McHenry (N.C.), the top Republican on the Financial Services Committee. “All while ignoring the issues the American people need our committee to be focused on. Republicans have repeatedly expressed our desire to work in a bipartisan manner, but today‘s actions seem driven solely by a political agenda.“

      Other financial institutions had been expecting Democrats to seek further information about their relationships with Deutsche Bank, a representative of another bank said.

      Deutsche Bank in a statement said that it was “in a productive dialogue with the House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees.”

      “We remain committed to providing appropriate information to all authorized investigations in a manner consistent with our legal obligations,” the bank said.

      Source Article from https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/15/democrats-subpoena-deutsche-bank-1277199

      “);var a = g[r.size_id].split(“x”).map((function(e) {return Number(e)})), s = u(a, 2);o.width = s[0],o.height = s[1]}o.rubiconTargeting = (Array.isArray(r.targeting) ? r.targeting : []).reduce((function(e, r) {return e[r.key] = r.values[0],e}), {rpfl_elemid: n.adUnitCode}),e.push(o)} else l.logError(“Rubicon bid adapter Error: bidRequest undefined at index position:” + t, c, d);return e}), []).sort((function(e, r) {return (r.cpm || 0) – (e.cpm || 0)}))},getUserSyncs: function(e, r, t) {if (!A && e.iframeEnabled) {var i = “”;return t && “string” == typeof t.consentString && (“boolean” == typeof t.gdprApplies ? i += “?gdpr=” + Number(t.gdprApplies) + “&gdpr_consent=” + t.consentString : i += “?gdpr_consent=” + t.consentString),A = !0,{type: “iframe”,url: n + i}}},transformBidParams: function(e, r) {return l.convertTypes({accountId: “number”,siteId: “number”,zoneId: “number”}, e)}};function m() {return [window.screen.width, window.screen.height].join(“x”)}function b(e, r) {var t = f.config.getConfig(“pageUrl”);return e.params.referrer ? t = e.params.referrer : t || (t = r.refererInfo.referer),e.params.secure ? t.replace(/^http:/i, “https:”) : t}function _(e, r) {var t = e.params;if (“video” === r) {var i = [];return t.video && t.video.playerWidth && t.video.playerHeight ? i = [t.video.playerWidth, t.video.playerHeight] : Array.isArray(l.deepAccess(e, “mediaTypes.video.playerSize”)) && 1 === e.mediaTypes.video.playerSize.length ? i = e.mediaTypes.video.playerSize[0] : Array.isArray(e.sizes) && 0

      Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/16/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html

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      London (CNN Business)The billionaires behind many of France’s top luxury brands have pledged €300 million ($339 million) to help reconstruct Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral following a devastating fire.

        Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/16/business/francois-henri-pinault-bernard-arnault-notre-dame-donation/index.html