Mueller report to be released by mid-April: AG
Reuters, Washington
US Attorney General William Barr plans to make public a redacted copy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s nearly 400-page investigative report into Russian interference in the 2016 election by mid-April, “if not sooner,” he said in a letter to lawmakers on Friday.
“Everyone will soon be able to read it on their own,” Barr wrote in the letter to the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate and House Judiciary committees. He said he was willing to appear before both committees to testify about Mueller’s report on May 1 and May 2.
France’s yellow vest protesters march despite bans
AP, Paris
French yellow vest protesters are rallying to support an activist injured in a confrontation with police. The demonstrators are undeterred by protest bans or repeated injuries in 20 weeks of demonstrations. So they’re marching again Saturday in Paris, Bordeaux and other cities to keep pressing President Emmanuel Macron to do more to help the working classes, redesign French politics – or step down altogether.
They’re also showing solidarity with Genevieve Legay, a 73-year-old anti-globalization activist who suffered a head injury in the southern city of Nice last weekend.
Macron’s party kicks off European Parliament campaign
AP, Paris
With Brexit looming and nationalism rising, French President Emmanuel Macron’s pro-EU party is launching its campaign for the European Parliament elections.
The centrist Republic on the Move party and allies are holding a rally Saturday in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers. The grouping calls itself Renaissance. Polls suggest Renaissance will be among France’s top two vote-getters in the May elections, alongside Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, far-right National Rally.
Afghanistan floods kill at least 17
Reuters, Heart
Heavy rains caused flash floods in western Afghanistan that killed at least 17 people, destroying homes and sweeping through makeshift shelters that housed displaced families, a government official said on Saturday.
Two days of flooding that started on Thursday killed 12 people in Jawzjan and two in Badghis, provinces that border Turkmenistan, said Hasibullah Shir Khani, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.
Five killed in China factory explosion
AFP, Beijing
Five workers were killed and three injured in a factory explosion caused by a gas leak in eastern China, local authorities said Saturday.
The blast happened Friday night at a perlite workshop in Shandong province, city officials said in a statement. All five victims were inside the Qingzhou city workshop during the explosion.
