Sum was allegedly paid in 2006 to Andrea Constand to close a suit she had brought against the TV star alleging he had drugged and sexually molested her in 2004

By Ed Pilkington from Norristown, PA for TheGuardian.com, April 9

[....] Kevin Steele, the district attorney for Cosby’s home county of Montgomery, revealed a secret that has remained hidden for the past 12 years – the amount of money that the TV star formerly known as “America’s Dad” was prepared to pay to keep his detractor quiet. The $3.4m was allegedly paid in 2006 to Andrea Constand, a Canadian massage therapist, to bring to a close a civil suit she had brought against him claiming he had persuaded her to take relaxant drugs before molesting her while she was unconscious.

The disclosure of the settlement amount came in Steele’s opening statement to the jury in Montgomery county court of common please in Norristown, a small, run-down Pennsylvania community struggling from industrial decline. For the second time in 10 months the town has become inundated with media and protesters drawn to the trial of one of America’s most famous – and once beloved – comedians.

Molly Ringwald eloquently reflects on the social impact of the John Hughes' films she starred in:

It’s a strange experience, watching a younger, more innocent version of yourself onscreen. It’s stranger still—surreal, even—watching it with your child when she is much closer in age to that version of yourself than you are. My friend was right: my daughter didn’t really seem to register most of the sex stuff, though she did audibly gasp when she thought I had showed my underwear. At one point in the film, the bad-boy character, John Bender, ducks under the table where my character, Claire, is sitting, to hide from a teacher. While there, he takes the opportunity to peek under Claire’s skirt and, though the audience doesn’t see, it is implied that he touches her inappropriately.

Republican Sen. John McCain said Sunday that President Donald Trump's comments that the US military would leave Syria "very soon" had emboldened Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, resulting in the reported chemical weapons attack Saturday that killed dozens of the country's civilians.

"President Trump last week signaled to the world that the United States would prematurely withdraw from Syria," the Arizona senator said in a statement. "Bashar Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers have heard him, and emboldened by American inaction, Assad has reportedly launched another chemical attack against innocent men, women and children, this time in Douma."

By Sari Horowitz @ WashingtonPost.com, April 6

Lawyers for Paul Manafort, the onetime chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, asked a federal judge Friday to order special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to release the names of alleged accomplices accused of helping Manafort commit crimes.

Manafort’s legal team also asked the court to direct Mueller to specify each allegedly false and misleading statement their client is accused of making, including to his tax preparers about his control of foreign bank accounts and to the Justice Department about his alleged lobbying work in 2016. Without that information, Manafort’s lawyers said, he cannot adequately prepare for trial.

Among other details that Manafort’s lawyers want Mueller to disclose are the identifications of people said to have helped him and his business partner engage in an alleged multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign in the United States. Mueller’s team says the alleged lobbying campaign was carried out at the direction of Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yanukovych, his pro-Russian Party of Regions and the government of Ukraine [....]

By Loveday Morris from Gaza City for WashingtonPost.com, April 7

[....] Murtaja [....] was one of nine people fatally shot on Friday after Israeli troops used live ammunition as tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered to protest at the heavily guarded boundary with Israel.

Five other journalists were injured by live fire, as well, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. They were clearly identifiable as journalists, the syndicate said, raising further questions over Israel’s insistence that its use of snipers on the crowds at the border is carefully targeted.

The Israeli military said it fired live rounds in a “precise, measured way” as part of its mission to protect Israeli communities near the fence. It said it does not intentionally target journalists and that the circumstances in which the journalists were allegedly hit by Israeli fire were “being looked into.”  Ahmed Murtaja, the slain journalist’s 30-year-old cousin, said the family wants an investigation and has submitted details to a local human rights group [....]

As the results came in on Nov. 8, 2016, liberals quite reasonably felt that they had suffered an absolute cataclysm. But it’s now looking increasingly possible that the election of Donald Trump could be the best thing that has happened to the left and the Democratic Party in decades.

I've been wondering for some time now if Democrats would be as engaged in truly moving our country forward as we are now if Trump hadn't been elected.  Would we have rested on our laurels while Republicans continued to hold executive positions all over the country - and likely the Congress?   What if ...?

By Choe Sang-Hun @ NYTimes.com, April 6

SEOUL, South Korea — Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s impeached and ousted president, was sentenced on Friday to 24 years in prison on a variety of criminal charges, in a case that exposed the entrenched, collusive ties between South Korea’s government and huge conglomerates like Samsung.

A three-judge panel at the Seoul Central District Court also ordered Ms. Park to pay $17 million in fines, in a ruling that marked a climactic moment in an influence-peddling scandal that shook the country’s political and business worlds.

Ms. Park’s conviction on bribery, coercion, abuse of power and other charges was the first lower-court ruling on a criminal case to be broadcast live in South Korea [....]

A recent New York Times report detailing internal emails between top Trump fundraiser Elliott Broidy and a political adviser to leaders in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia noted that Broidy referenced SAN as “one of the groups I am working with” to push the Trump administration to fill key positions with individuals favorable to those Persian Gulf leaders.