North America

31 May 2019; DW: The chancellor has addressed students at the elite university, encouraging them to shape the future. Her halting speech appeared to contain a few digs at President Donald Trump, without mentioning him by name.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivered a commencement speech to Harvard graduates on Thursday after being greeted with rousing applause when introduced as "one of the most respected and influential leaders of the postwar era."

LOS ANGELES, May 30 (Xinhua) -- NASA's Curiosity rover has found the highest amounts of clay minerals since its landing on Mars in August of 2012, according to a release of NASA on Wednesday.

Two samples the rover recently drilled at rock targets called "Aberlady" and "Kilmarie" have revealed the highest amounts of clay minerals ever found during the mission, said the release.

Both drill targets appear in a new selfie taken by the rover on May 12, the 2,405th Martian day of the mission.

NEW YORK, May 30 (APP): US President Donald Trump finally admitted in a tweet that Russia helped elected him before immediately retracting it.

In series of testy tweets , he said he “had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected.”

“No, Russia did not help me get elected,” Trump told reporters as he departed Washington for Colorado Springs. “I got me elected.” He spoke less than an hour after his Twitter post.

NEW YORK (AP) — Uber is continuing to bleed money even as it posts dramatic revenue growth.

In its first financial report since its lackluster debut on Wall Street, Uber said Thursday that its revenue rose to $3.1 billion in the first quarter of 2019, up 20% from the same time last year, beating expectations of analysts polled by FactSet. But the ride-hailing giant posted $1 billion in losses as it fights to maintain its share of the market.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the special counsel’s Russia investigation (all times local):

3:20 p.m.

Attorney General William Barr says special counsel Robert Mueller could have reached a decision on whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice.

Barr says in an interview with “CBS This Morning” that though Justice Department rules prevent the indictment of a sitting president, Mueller nonetheless could have decided whether Trump had committed a crime.

DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware judge is ordering Facebook to turn over internal records regarding data privacy and access to user data.

Thursday’s ruling involves an investor lawsuit seeking company records to investigate potential wrongdoing and mismanagement by Facebook directors regarding data privacy breaches.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An Army veteran who served in Iraq ran his car into a crowd of pedestrians in California because he believed two of the people looked like they were Muslim, authorities said Thursday.

The disclosure came as prosecutors filed two hate crime allegations against 34-year-old Isaiah Peoples.

He is also facing eight counts of attempted murder after police said he deliberately plowed his car into people on April 24 at the Sunnyvale crosswalk and showed no remorse afterward. The hate crime allegations carry up to six additional years in prison each.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California regulators on Thursday approved allowing utilities to cut off electricity to possibly hundreds of thousands of customers to avoid catastrophic wildfires like the one sparked by power lines last year that killed 85 people and largely destroyed the city of Paradise.

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that President Donald Trump is a “great friend of the Canadian people” and that the U.S.-Canada relationship has “never been stronger,” less than a year after Trump assailed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in unprecedented attacks on America’s longtime ally.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s personal security chief faces accusations of sexual misconduct and making racist and homophobic comments, according to a report Thursday by a business news site.

In a detailed article, Business Insider cited legal letters reportedly written by former employees of Zuckerberg’s household staff. The letters reportedly described pervasive discriminatory conduct and severe levels of sexual harassment and battery, including racist and homophobic comments about members of Zuckerberg’s staff and his wife, Priscilla Chan.