Summarize this article:

A dozen children were injured when an amusement ride at a Connecticut fair broke down on Sunday, sending the swinging riders careening into each when the ride came to a sudden halt, authorities said.

 One adult was also among the 13 people transported to hospitals after the mishap at Norwalk's Oyster Festival.

 Norwalk police Lt. Paul Resnick said an 8-year-old boy was admitted to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The rest were treated and released.

 Five other people refused treatment at the scene, police said.

 The rotating, swing-type "Zumur" ride lifts riders up and away as it spins, authorities said. State police said a mechanical failure caused the ride to suddenly stop and those on board collided with each other.

 Police initially said some of the ride's occupants had fallen to the ground but a preliminary investigation by state police indicates no riders were ejected from the ride or fell from it.

 Resnick said children were being tended to by their parents on the ground when he arrived shortly after the accident.

 The festival's organizer, the nonprofit Norwalk Seaport Association, said it directed the ride's operator, Stewart Amusement, to shut down the entire ride area until state inspectors completed a check. The other rides later reopened and the rest of the festival remained open on its third and final day.

 Stewart Amusement didn't immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment. Its rides are inspected by its own staff every day, by state and local inspectors weekly and by engineers and insurance inspectors each year, the company's website said.

 "Your safety is of critical importance to us," the site says. "Not only do we have an obligation to provide our guests with the safest equipment and environment possible, but also our ultimate success depends on it."

 Stewart Amusement says it has provided rides and other attractions since 1983 at events in Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut and neighboring Westchester and Putnam counties in New York.

 Troopers with state police fire and explosion unit were investigating, department spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said.

 Festival organizers posted a statement about the accident on its Facebook page.

 "Our first and only concern is for the wellbeing of those involved and their families," the statement said. ||||| (CNN) -- A malfunction at a festival swing ride in Connecticut sent children crashing into each other and onto the ground -- and raised new questions about the safety of such rides.

 Families were enjoying a sunny Sunday afternoon at the Norwalk Oyster Festival when a ride called the Zumur experienced a mechanical failure that caused it to stop in mid-air, injuring 18 people, mostly children, the Norwalk Police Department said.

 "It was a big boom, a big crash, three or four times over," Deyo Ello told News 12. "They slammed into the base of (the ride), and then you heard a whole bunch of screaming."

 The ride -- which spins swings tethered to metal arms in an elliptical motion -- suddenly came to a jerking stop, "causing riders to collide with each other," according to the statement issued by police.

 Shuan Marsh was in line at the ride when the accident happened.

 "It was just injured kids everywhere. The parents ripping out the gate just trying to get to their kids," he said. "It was just horrible."

 Twelve children and one adult were taken to hospitals for treatment, News 12 reported. An 8-year-old boy remained hospitalized late Sunday with non-life threatening injuries.

 Ride inspected

 Stewart Amusement, which owns and operates the rides at the festival, said state officials inspected the ride Friday, two days before the accident.

 "It was a mechanical failure," said Richard Stewart, president of the company. "It never happened before. We hope it never happens again. "

 Stewart said his company has been cooperative with authorities, who are still investigating, and plans to have the machine taken and apart and inspected once authorities are done.

 In a statement on its Facebook page, the Norwalk Seaport Association, the festival organizer, said the well-being of the children and families involved was its only concern.

 The festival temporarily shut down rides after the accident but reopened them Sunday evening after fire investigators and the ride company inspected them.

 Safety record

 "Portable rides have a very good safety record," according to amusement park safety expert Ken Martin. "In the state of Connecticut, however, they are only inspected once a year."

 And that's the rub for many folk. The rules are different from state to state, with six states -- Alabama, Mississippi, Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah -- having no oversight at all.

 Traveling rides like the one that malfunctioned in Norwalk come under federal scrutiny by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

 And they're actually inspected more than fixed rides, such as at amusement parks like Six Flags and Disney World. They fall under state jurisdiction and are often inspected by the state only when they're installed.

 That's something that needs to change, in Martin's opinion.

 "There is no federal oversight of fixed amusement parks and that is part of the problem," he said. "An amusement ride is an amusement ride. They need the same reporting systems, the same type of oversight, the same inspection guidelines for amusement rides all across the country."

 In July, Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington shut down its Texas Giant roller coaster after a woman was thrown from her seat and plunged to her death.

 Between 1990 and 2010, more than 92,000 children were injured in amusement ride-related incidents, according to a study by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio. That's an average of more than 4,000 injuries per year. The study looked at both mobile and fixed rides.

 It could have been us

 For those who witnessed Sunday's accident at the Oyster Festival, it was heartbreaking.

 "Just to see all those poor little kids just in so much pain and everything going on, it was really scary," Marsh said.

 But for Ello, it hit even closer to home.

 He had tried to go on the ride with his daughter, but they were turned away when she didn't meet the height requirements. Seeing injured children lying on the ground after the accident was devastating, he said.

 "If she was tall enough, that would have been her," he said, grabbing his daughter's hands. "My heart is broken. I'm speechless. It ruined the day, you know."

 CNN's Rick Martin and Sho Wills contributed to this report. |||||

– A dozen children were hospitalized yesterday after a swing ride malfunctioned at a festival in Connecticut, sending children crashing into each other and the center of the ride in front of their horrified parents. One adult was also injured as the ride at Norwalk's Oyster Festival lost power, the AP reports. Witnesses saw bleeding children with injured necks and legs and the most seriously injured child, an 8-year-old boy, is still in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. "It was just injured kids everywhere. The parents ripping out the gate just trying to get to their kids," a witness tells CNN. "It was just horrible." The owner of the ride, which spins swings attached to metal arms, says his company is cooperating with state investigators.


– A tough-as-nails Cajun star of the History Channel's Swamp People dropped dead in his boat yesterday. The cause of death was not immediately known, but witnesses said Mitchell Guist, who would have turned 49 on Friday, appeared to suffer a seizure shortly after launching his boat for another day of plying the Louisiana bayous for food. Paramedics responding to the scene on Belle River near Baton Rouge were unable to revive him, reports WBRZ-TV. Guist and his brother, Glenn, became unlikely reality stars of the Swamp People series, which follows alligator, snake, frog, squirrel and catfish hunters in Louisiana's Atchafalaya swamp country. "We are extremely saddened to report that our friend and beloved member of the Swamp People family, Mitchell Guist, has passed away," said a History Channel statement. "Mitchell passed on the swamp, doing what he loved."

Expand this summary.

A few of you might've missed the boat on The History Channel's reality series "Swamp People," and unfortunately are only realizing it in light of "Swamp People" star Mitchell Guist's death.

 The series is set in Louisiana's Atchafalaya Swamp, and focuses on Cajun alligator hunters, like the late Mitchell Guist and his brother Glenn, during the 30-day hunting season that the History Channel notes is "crucial to their survival."

 It may sound like a simple concept, but fans will tell you that's also its draw.

 Now in its third season, "Swamp People" is a ratings win for The History Channel in its Thursday night timeslot. Last week, "Swamp People" was the top original cable program, pulling in 3.8 million viewers, according to TV by the Numbers.

 At the heart of the show are "Swamp People's" cast of characters, and Mitchell and his brother were among fans' favorites.

 The pair are described by The History Channel as "swampers through and through," two brothers living "entirely off the land" and "making use of everything nature has to offer."

 That lifestyle resonated with many, as seen in the response of CNN.com commenters like thammu, who viewed Mitchell as "an original on the show, and it brought me renewed respect for people living off the land(and waters) they love."

 Entertainment Weekly has called "Swamp People" a "refreshing departure from the over-produced, glossy fare that dominates much of the reality TV landscape," and its millions of viewers have welcomed that change.

 "'Swamp People' is one of the only Reality TV shows I have ever enjoyed," said CNN.com commenter stonecrow of Guist's passing. "The reason being that the people they show are genuine, hospitable and decent. While it can become repetitive seeing the same hunt scenario every week, the Guist brothers, Troy and all the rest don't appear to be celebrity w****s like so many others in the reality TV circuit. For the folks that don't understand that, feel free to get your fill of Snookie [sic] instead. I'll take the Cajuns any day. RIP Mitchell." ||||| Posted: May 14, 2012 11:51 AM

 Updated: May 14, 2012 2:55 PM

 Source: Assumption Parish

 Photos

 Video

 Continuing Coverage: Swamp People star's death

 BELLE RIVER - Deputies in Assumption Parish confirmed that Mitchell Guist from The History Channel's show "Swamp People" died this morning.

 Sheriff Mike Waguespack said the incident occurred around 9 a.m. in St. Martin Parish along the Belle River. Waguespack said Guist suffered a fall in the boat shortly after it launched into the Belle River.

 Witnesses told News 2 people on the boat waved others over for help, and Guist was having what appeared to be seizures. They called 911 and a responder trained in CPR, but attempts to resuscitate the reality TV star were unsuccessful.

 The cause of death is not known.

 A spokesperson at The History Channel released the following statement this afternoon:

 "We are extremely saddened to report that our friend and beloved member of the Swamp People family, Mitchell Guist, has passed away earlier today. Mitchell passed on the swamp, doing what he loved. We appreciate your respect for the Guist family's privacy and hope you join us in sending our thoughts and prayers to his brother, Glenn, and the rest of the Guist family. "

 The spokesperson said all planned episodes of "The Swamp People" would air normally and as scheduled, and they were working on how "to honor to his memory."

 News 2 will have more details as they become available.

 Photo Courtesy: The History Channel |||||


More than 350 volunteers joined authorities Sunday in a search for two young Iowa cousins whose bicycles were found abandoned near a lake.

 Family members held out hope even as investigators said they had found no new clues that could lead them to the girls, who were last seen shortly after noon Friday. Authorities located the bikes of 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins and her 10-year-old cousin, Lyric Cook-Morrissey, at Meyers Lake a few hours after they were reported missing.

 The Des Moines Register reported (http://dmreg.co/MaEPWe) that investigators had managed to search about 40 percent of the lake, and were also interviewing family, friends and registered sex offenders who live in the Evansdale area. Black Hawk County Sheriff's deputy Rick Abben said authorities have found no new clues.

 The mothers of both girls said they were trying to stay strong as the search entered its third day.

 "Today I'm feeling pretty good," Misty Cook-Morrissey said as crews assembled to look for her daughter and her niece. "Sometimes, when you think about it, you wonder if they're dead somewhere, but you try to push those thoughts out of your mind."

 Cook-Morrissey said she was grateful for the community support in Evansdale, a Waterloo suburb that is about 120 miles northeast of Des Moines.

 "It's been good talking to people," she said. "It keeps your mind off of what's happening."

 The girls' bikes were found at Meyers Lake a few hours after the youngsters were reported missing. Elizabeth's purse and cellphone were found about 20 feet away from the bikes, law enforcement officials said. It could take until Monday to complete the lake search.

 Abben said officials are "grasping for straws" to find information on the girls' whereabouts. Officials said they hoped to cover as much area as possible Sunday, because they expected the number of volunteers to drop as people return to work.

 Cook-Morrissey said her daughter might have tried to swim at the lake, despite a swimming ban. She said the family swims at another nearby lake regularly, and described Lyric as a good swimmer.

 Elizabeth's mother, Heather Collins, said it's rare for her daughter to venture too far from home, but she may have been persuaded by her older cousin.

 "We've talked about that before," Collins said "We've told them they're too young to go far."

 Misty Cook-Morrissey and Heather Collins are sisters.

 Meyers Lake is about 20 yards from Interstate 380, which means there is easy access to the lake and bike trail, Abben said at a news conference. ||||| Story highlights "Looking at it, it doesn't make any sense," says the father of one of the missing girls

 "It's as though they disappeared into thin air in broad daylight," says their aunt

 Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook, 10, have been missing since Friday

 More than 1,000 people joined a massive volunteer search effort over the weekend

 Family members of two girls last seen riding bicycles near a lake in Evansdale, Iowa, put on a brave face Monday, saying they are "bracing for the worst, but hoping for the best."

 The girls -- 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins and 10-year-old Lyric Cook -- were last seen by their grandmother on Friday when the two, who are cousins, left to go on a bike ride, authorities said.

 "We just want our girls home," Tammy Brousseau, an aunt to both girls told CNN's "AC360." "We're bracing for the worst, but hoping for the best."

 Sitting beside Brousseau during the interview was Misty Cook-Morrissey, Lyric's mother. She said she wanted people to know what the girls are like.

 "They're very outgoing. They're very sweet, talkative, they're fun. They smile a lot. They're pretty persistent in the things that they want. They're great, they're really great. You know what I mean?" she said.

 JUST WATCHED Dad: Not first time kid has gone missing Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Dad: Not first time kid has gone missing 02:13

 JUST WATCHED Mom: Someone must have scared them badly Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Mom: Someone must have scared them badly 03:05

 A massive volunteer search over the weekend failed to locate the girls, and authorities have suspended the volunteer effort.

 "Are we going to get answers? I'm not sure," Lyric's father, Daniel Morrissey, told HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell. "It's just baffling to try to figure out the pieces to the puzzle. Looking at it, it doesn't make any sense."

 "It's just been a nightmare," he said. "It's been a challenge to hold everything together and continue to just keep believing and praying and trusting God that he's got this."

 Brousseau, the aunt, also spoke to HLN's Velez-Mitchell, saying she believes her nieces must have been taken by a stranger.

 "It's as though they disappeared into thin air in broad daylight," she said.

 Authorities began dragging Meyers Lake over the weekend for a sign of the girls. Their bicycles were located hours after they were reported missing near that lake. The search remains a missing persons case.

 "We really have nothing new that I can tell you, other than the fact the search is continuing," Rick Abben, chief deputy for the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office, told reporters Monday. "... We're still looking for both of them. There's no new evidence or anything that's been found."

 Nearly 1,000 volunteers helped in the search Saturday, and nearly 900 on Sunday, he said.

 Calls are coming in to a tip line, he said, and each bit of information is being checked out. Police ask that anyone who may have seen the girls on Friday contact authorities.

 Abben said the volunteer effort was suspended because authorities did not feel there was a benefit in having more people search. However, he said, "we can always call those folks back out."

 Agents from the FBI and the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation joined the search on Saturday, authorities said.

 Abben told reporters Monday there was no indication the girls were outside Evansdale, a town of about 4,700 located about 12 miles southeast of Cedar Falls. Nor was there any indication of foul play, he said. |||||

Write a summary.

– Cousins Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook, 10, said goodbye to their grandmother and set off on bicycles for an Iowa lake Friday afternoon, and they haven't been seen since. More than 900 volunteers had joined search efforts by yesterday, CNN reports, but after finding no trace of the girls, authorities have suspended the volunteer effort. "It's like they vanished," an official says. "There's just nothing." The girls' bikes were found near the lake hours after they were reported missing, but authorities have found no sign of foul play, nor any hint of domestic issues. A purse and cell phone belonging to Collins were also found near the bikes, the AP adds. An aunt notes that the area is full of "brush" and "somebody could have pulled up—maybe had been watching them for a little bit of time." Says Elizabeth's mother: "Positive thinking is all we have right now and our faith that God will bring them back."


Article:

Updated 6:50 a.m. ET

 WASHINGTON The bizarre journey of Edward Snowden is far from over. After spending a night in Moscow's airport, the former National Security Agency contractor and admitted leaker of U.S. state secrets was expected to fly to Cuba and Venezuela en route to possible asylum in Ecuador.

 But the U.S. says Moscow should hand Snowden over to Washington.

 Edward Snowden on the run, reportedly in Russia Russia and China OK with defying Obama on Snowden Kerry: "Serious consequences" if Snowden boards plane from Russia

 Multiple reports say Snowden wasn't on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Havana Monday that earlier reports indicated he'd be on.

 Snowden, also a former CIA technician, fled Hong Kong on Sunday to dodge U.S. efforts to extradite him on espionage charges. Ecuador's Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patino, said his government had received an asylum request. He added Monday that Ecuador's decision about the request involves "freedom of expression and ... the security of citizens around the world." He did not say how long it would take Ecuador to decide.

 The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks has said it was helping Snowden.

 Ecuador has rejected the United States' previous efforts at cooperation, and has been helping WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange avoid prosecution by allowing him to stay at its embassy in London.

 Snowden was on a flight from Hong Kong that arrived in Moscow Sunday and was booked on a flight to Cuba Monday, the Russian news agencies ITAR-Tass and Interfax reported, citing unnamed airline officials.

 Patino said, "We know that he's currently in Moscow, and we are ... in touch with the highest authorities of Russia."

 The NSC issued a statement early Monday saying it is "disappointed by the decision of the authorities in Hong Kong to permit Mr. Snowden to flee despite the legally valid U.S. request to arrest him for purposes of his extradition under the U.S.-Hong Kong Surrender Agreement. We have registered our strong objections to the authorities in Hong Kong as well as to the Chinese government through diplomatic channels and noted that such behavior is detrimental to U.S.-Hong Kong and U.S.-China bilateral relations."

 The statement continued, "We now understand Mr. Snowden is on Russian soil. Given our intensified cooperation after the Boston marathon bombings and our history of working with Russia on law enforcement matters -- including returning numerous high level criminals back to Russia at the request of the Russian government -- we expect the Russian Government to look at all options available to expel Mr. Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged."

 At a news conference in New Delhi, India Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Moscow should send Snowden back to the U.S. but, "Historically, there are some countries that just play outside of that process."

 Kerry said it would be "very disappointing" if China and Russia allowed Snowden to fly, and there would undoubtedly be "an impact on our relations."

 Kerry added that Snowden "places himself above the law, having betrayed his country."

 The Reuters news agency quotes a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying the Kremlin doesn't know of any contact between Snowden and Russian authorities. Reuters says Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the U.S. calls for Russia to expel Snowden.

 A senior administration official told CBS News, "Mr. Snowden's claim that he is focused on supporting transparency, freedom of the press and protection of individual rights and democracy is belied by the protectors he has potentially chosen: China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador. His failure to criticize these regimes suggests that his true motive throughout has been to injure the national security of the U.S., not to advance internet freedom and free speech."

 Snowden gave documents to The Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers disclosing U.S. surveillance programs that collect vast amounts of phone records and online data in the name of foreign intelligence, often sweeping up information on American citizens. Officials have the ability to collect phone and Internet information broadly, but need a warrant to examine specific cases where they believe terrorism is involved.

 Snowden had been in hiding for several weeks in Hong Kong, a former British colony with a high degree of autonomy from mainland China. The United States formally sought Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong to face espionage charges but was rebuffed; Hong Kong officials said the U.S. request did not fully comply with its laws.

 The Justice Department rejected that claim, saying its request met all of the requirements of the extradition treaty between the U.S. and Hong Kong. During conversations last week, including a phone call Wednesday between Attorney General Eric Holder and Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen, Hong Kong officials never raised any issues regarding sufficiency of the U.S. request, a Justice representative said.

 The United States was in touch through diplomatic and law enforcement channels with countries that Snowden could travel through or to, reminding them that Snowden is wanted on criminal charges and reiterating Washington's position that Snowden should only be permitted to travel back to the U.S., a State Department official said. Snowden's U.S. passport has been revoked.

 U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.

 An unidentified Aeroflot airline official was cited by Russia's state ITAR-Tass news agency and Interfax as saying Snowden was on the plane that landed Sunday afternoon in Moscow. The Russian report said Snowden intended to fly to Cuba on Monday and then on to Caracas, Venezuela.

 The White House was hoping to stop Snowden before he left Moscow.

 Still, the United States is likely to have problems interrupting Snowden's passage. The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, but does with Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador. Even with an extradition agreement though, any country could give Snowden a political exemption.

 The likelihood that any of these countries would stop Snowden from traveling on to Ecuador seemed remote. While diplomatic tensions have thawed in recent years, Cuba and the United States are hardly allies after a half-century of distrust. Another country that could see Snowden pass through, Venezuela, could prove difficult, as well. Former President Hugo Chavez was a sworn enemy of the United States and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, earlier this year called President Obama the "grand chief of devils." The two countries do not exchange ambassadors.

 Snowden's options aren't numerous, said Assange's lawyer, Michael Ratner.

 "You have to have a country that's going to stand up to the United States," Ratner said. "You're not talking about a huge range of countries here."

 It also wasn't clear Snowden was finished disclosing highly classified information.

 Snowden has perhaps more than 200 sensitive documents, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CBS' "Face the Nation." ||||| The Chinese government was pleased that Mr. Snowden disclosed the extent of American surveillance of Internet and telephone conversations around the world, giving the Chinese people a chance to talk about what they describe as American hypocrisy regarding surveillance practices, said Mr. Jin and the person familiar with the consultations between Hong Kong and China.

 But in the longer term, China’s overall relationship with the United States, which spans global economic, military and security issues, was more important than the feelings of the public in China and Hong Kong, who felt that the contractor should be protected from the reach of the United States, analysts said.

 Mainland Chinese officials “will be relieved he’s gone — the popular sentiment in Hong Kong and China is to protect him because he revealed United States surveillance here, but the governments don’t want trouble in the relationship,” said the person familiar with the consultations between Beijing and Hong Kong.

 Mr. Snowden went public in Hong Kong on June 9, the day after the meeting between Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi ended, as the source of a series of disclosures in the British newspaper The Guardian and The Washington Post about classified national security programs.

 The stream of information about the extent of American worldwide eavesdropping shifted the focus in the public sniping between the Obama administration and China over cybersecurity that had been unfolding for months.

 Photo

 In a series of speeches, senior officials in the Obama administration, including the national security adviser, Tom Donilon, and the defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, had taken the offensive against China, publicly accusing it of cyberespionage against American businesses. Mr. Donilon said in a speech in March that China was responsible for theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through digital intrusions on an “unprecedented scale.”

 In response to those accusations, China said that it was the victim of cyberattacks from the United States.

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 Mr. Snowden’s disclosures appeared to confirm the Chinese government’s argument, and put the United States on the defensive. The highly classified documents that Mr. Snowden gave to the two newspapers showed that the N.S.A. compiled logs of virtually all telephone calls in the United States and collected the e-mail of foreigners from American Internet companies.

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 Mr. Snowden has denied giving China classified documents and said he had spoken only to journalists. But his public statements, directly and to reporters, have contained intelligence information of great interest to China.

 Two Western intelligence experts, who worked for major government spy agencies, said they believed that the Chinese government had managed to drain the contents of the four laptops that Mr. Snowden said he brought to Hong Kong, and that he said were with him during his stay at a Hong Kong hotel.

 If that were the case, they said, China would no longer need or want to have Mr. Snowden remain in Hong Kong.

 The disclosures by Mr. Snowden set off a surge of commentary against American “double faced” and “arrogant” behavior by many users of China’s version of Twitter.

 In some instances, the Chinese news media made snide references to what it called the gap between how the United States portrayed itself, and what the United States practiced. “Washington must be grinding its teeth because Snowden’s revelations have almost overturned the image of the U.S. as the defender of a free Internet,” Global Times, which often reflects the official point of view, wrote in an editorial.

 The precise details of how the Chinese government dealt with Hong Kong authorities were not immediately known.

 But Beijing appears to have decided that weeks of focus on Mr. Snowden in Hong Kong and his disclosures about the American government’s global surveillance practices were enough, and that he could turn into a liability, said a second person familiar with the handling of Mr. Snowden. “Beijing has gotten the most they can out of the Snowden situation,” that person said.

 A senior diplomat familiar with the way the Chinese government works said just before the departure of Mr. Snowden became public that he believed that Beijing would do all it could to keep Mr. Snowden out of American hands. The Chinese public would be outraged if the contractor was extradited, put on trial and jailed, he said. At the same time, the Obama administration would put relentless pressure on Beijing to get Mr. Snowden, he said.

 “I see the sun of Sunnylands disappearing into the snow of Snowden,” the diplomat said. ||||| This weekend NSA whistleblower/leaker Edward Snowden left a government safe house in Hong Kong and flew to Moscow, where he then booked a flight to Cuba.

 A bunch of journalists booked seats on the same flight from Moscow to Havana.

 Snowden didn't show.

 — max seddon (@maxseddon) June 24, 2013

 The Guardian put it this way: "Edward Snowden not on Aeroflot flight to Havana. But a bunch of reporters are. (Bad news for them: it's dry)."

 On Sunday the 30-year-old ex-Booz Allen employee requested asylum in Ecuador and CNN reported that the U.S. revoked Snowden's passport at some point.

 Now it looks like Russia, or Snowden (or WikiLeaks), pulled a fast one on everybody.

 Before Snowden's no-show, Russian President Vladimir Putin's press secretary told Reuters: "Overall, we have no information about him."

 Now Russia's Interfax news agency is reporting that former CIA technician is likely outside of Russia.

 So almost no one knows where he is.

 Journalists from around world embark on Moscow-Havana flight to "photograph an empty seat" via @caosnews pic.twitter.com/TL6BGR3NmF #Snowden — Jim Roberts (@nycjim) June 24, 2013

 "The journalists stare at the message on their phones: 'I'm sorry, the princess is in another castle'" - pg. 82, of my Snowden screenplay — Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) June 24, 2013

 The most famous empty chair since Eastwood's. #Snowden pic.twitter.com/wrPjAKdbHz — ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) June 24, 2013

 Snowden leaked the first concrete evidence of the NSA's domestic surveillance apparatus when he gave Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald “thousands” of documents. The documents have corroborated claims made by other whistleblowers.

 On Friday the U.S. filed criminal espionage charges against the former NSA contractor, and has been trying to pressure countries hosting Snowden to turn him over. ||||| Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Sarah Harrison as a lawyer. She is a member of the WikiLeaks legal defense team, but not a lawyer. This version has been corrected.

 Edward Snowden, a contract worker for the National Security Agency, revealed June 9 that he was the source of the leaks to The Washington Post and the Guardian of information about the U.S. government’s vast collection of phone and Internet data. The United States charged Snowden with espionage on June 21.

 1. The leak Edward Snowden, a contract worker for the National Security Agency, revealed June 9 that he was the source of the leaks to The Washington Post and the Guardian of information about the U.S. government’s vast collection of phone and Internet data. The United States charged Snowden with espionage on June 21. Guardian via AP

 A 30-year-old government contractor was the source of high-profile disclosures of the vast collection of data obtained by the National Security Agency and other intelligence groups.

 A 29-year-old government contractor has been charged with espionage for recent leaks of classified intelligence. He has vaulted from obscurity to international notoriety, joining the ranks of high-profile leakers such as Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame.

 A 29-year-old government contractor has been charged with espionage for recent leaks of classified intelligence. He has vaulted from obscurity to international notoriety, joining the ranks of high-profile leakers such as Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame.

 Edward Snowden, sought on espionage charges after bringing secret U.S. surveillance programs to light, receded still further into the shadows Monday as the United States strenuously called on Russia to turn him over for prosecution.

 Snowden, a former government contractor who has not been seen in public since he was said to have arrived in Moscow on Sunday after slipping out of Hong Kong, set off a flurry of diplomatic activity around the globe as frustrated U.S. officials tried to interrupt his flight to asylum. The 30-year-old fugitive , according to Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, who said he was advising Snowden.

 After reporters and airline officials said Snowden failed to board a flight from Moscow to Havana on Monday afternoon as expected, the United States intensified its pressure on the countries suspected of offering him possible protection. Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said the United States believed Snowden was still in Moscow.

 The episode, which began with embarrassing disclosures about American intelligence-gathering, has reverberated from China to South America. As Snowden stays one step ahead of U.S. law, countries large and small are exploiting the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to flout American will.

 “We continue to hope that the Russians will do the right thing,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry, traveling in India, told NBC News. “We think it’s very important in terms of our relationship.

 Russian news agencies quoted a string of careful statements from unnamed sources, who said they were powerless to intervene because Snowden remained in a transit area of the airport and had not crossed the border into official Russian territory.

 “The Americans can’t demand anything,” Vladimir Lukin, Russia’s human rights ombudsman and a former U.S. ambassador, told the Interfax news agency.

 Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño , who was traveling in Vietnam, read from a letter he said Snowden had sent President Rafael Correa. In the letter, Snowden compared himself to Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, charged in the leak of a trove classified material passed to WikiLeaks, and said he did not believe he would be treated justly and that he could be executed if returned to the United States.

 Assange, speaking to reporters by telephone from his sanctuary in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, said Snowden was with Sarah Harrison, a top WikiLeaks lieutenant and Assange confidante who had escorted him from Hong Kong. Assange said that Snowden was in a “safe place” and that his “spirits are high” but would say only that he was “bound for Ecuador via a safe path through Russia and other states.”

 A former contractor for the National Security Agency, Snowden has presented the United States with a tantalizing and maddening mystery since he left Hong Kong early Sunday local time despite a request by the United States to detain him.

 Journalists in Moscow have been led on one unsatisfying chase after another since Snowden arrived at the airport Sunday. About two-dozen of them bought tickets to the Monday flight to Havana — costing more than $2,000 each, round-trip — and were dismayed when the seat in Row 17 reportedly assigned to Snowden remained empty as the plane took off. Some hoped, apparently in vain, that he was wearing a disguise or hiding in a crew area of the Aeroflot Airbus.

 With no clear information about Snowden’s plans, Russian media speculated that he would take the Tuesday flight to Havana and travel from there to South America. Another theory had it that the Russians were having second thoughts.

 Carney said U.S. authorities were “in conversations” with their Russian counterparts regarding Snowden, who said he exposed a citizen surveillance program that he believed violated civil liberties. President Obama, in response to a reporter’s question, said only that the United States was “following the appropriate legal channels and working with various countries to make sure that all the rules are followed.”

 Kerry, citing widespread Internet limits and human rights issues in Russia and China, said it was “no small irony” that Snowden was seeking cooperation from those countries in his quest to protect civil liberties.

 “I hope it’s a good sign he isn’t on that flight,” Kerry said in the NBC interview, “and that something else may take place. But I’m not going to prejudge anything other than to say that obviously this is important to us. And I hope the right thing will happen.”

 Kerry asserted that the United States had returned seven criminals wanted by Russia over the past few years. But the United States has also irritated Russia by refusing repeated requests to return Viktor Bout, convicted in New York of global arms smuggling and sentenced to 25 years in prison last year.

 Assange said Ecuador had supplied Snowden with a “refugee document of passage” before his flight from Hong Kong, facilitating his travel to Moscow and, presumably, beyond. Assange described the move as an initial step in the process of seeking asylum and a necessary step given the revocation of Snowden’s passport by U.S. authorities.

 Patiño, the Ecuadoran foreign minister, said his government was “in close contact with the Russian government” but did not have specific information about Snowden’s whereabouts.

 Patiño said Ecuador, which has been sharply criticized for silencing journalists at home, was considering Snowden’s asylum request. He praised the former government contractor for disclosing the surveillance program and said Ecuador was free to exercise its sovereignty as it saw fit with regard to Snowden.

 When asked if he was concerned about damaging his nation’s economic relationship with Washington, Patiño remained adamant. “Ecuador puts its principles above its economic interests,” he said.

 Correa, the Ecuadoran president, has emerged as one of the most vehement critics of U.S. policy in the Western Hemisphere. In 2011, his administration expelled the American ambassador in Quito to protest a cable released by WikiLeaks that alleged that the Ecuadoran police force was rife with corruption.

 Faiola reported from London. Karen DeYoung in New Delhi; Juan Forero in Bogota, Colombia; Jia Lynn Yang in Hong Kong; Phil Rucker, David Nakamura and Debbi Wilgoren in Washington; and Liu Liu in Beijing contributed to this report. ||||| National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden is set to leave Moscow for Cuba, the next step on his journey to evade U.S. justice and seek asylum in Ecuador.

 A representative of Aeroflot told The Associated Press that Snowden registered for the flight to Havana that leaves Moscow on Monday at 2:05 p.m. (1005 GMT).

 The airline says he registered for the flight on Sunday using his U.S. passport, which American officials say has been annulled as part of an effort to prosecute him for revealing highly classified government secrets.

 Snowden arrived in Moscow on Sunday from Hong Kong, where he had been hiding for several weeks. Ecuador's foreign minister said Sunday that the country is considering his application for asylum. ||||| U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says it would be "deeply troubling" if Russia or Hong Kong had adequate notice about Edward Snowden's plans to flee to a country that will grant him asylum and still allowed him leave.

 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry makes a gesture of greeting to the media at the end of a photo opportunity with Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid, not pictured, at Hyderabad House in New Delhi,... (Associated Press)

 Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor and a self-admitted leaker of state secrets, fled from Hong Kong to Moscow on Sunday after the U.S. moved to extradite him to face espionage charges. He was expected to seek political asylum in Ecuador.

 He was booked on a flight from Moscow to Cuba on Monday, but apparently was not on the plane. It was unclear where he was.

 In the past two years, Kerry says, the U.S. has transferred seven prisoners to Russia that Moscow wanted.

 The U.S. has revoked Snowden's passport. ||||| Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, said in an interview from his own refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London that he had raised Mr. Snowden’s case with Ecuador’s government and that his group had helped arrange the travel documents. Baltasar Garzón, the renowned Spanish jurist who advises WikiLeaks, said in a statement that “what is being done to Mr. Snowden and to Mr. Julian Assange — for making or facilitating disclosures in the public interest — is an assault against the people.”

 Obama administration officials privately expressed frustration that Hong Kong allowed Mr. Snowden to board an Aeroflot plane bound for Moscow on Sunday despite the American request for his detention. But they did not revoke Mr. Snowden’s passport until Saturday and did not ask Interpol to issue a “red notice” seeking his arrest.

 An administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said no red notice was requested because they are “most valuable when the whereabouts of a fugitive are unknown.” Mr. Snowden was known to be in Hong Kong, so his provisional arrest was sought under an existing American agreement with Hong Kong.

 On Sunday, the Hong Kong authorities said that the American arrest request “did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law,” and therefore they could not legally stop Mr. Snowden from leaving. The Justice Department rejected this explanation and provided a timeline of interactions suggesting that the Hong Kong authorities first requested “additional information” on Friday.

 “At no point, in all of our discussions through Friday, did the authorities in Hong Kong raise any issues regarding the sufficiency of the U.S.'s provisional arrest request,” a department official said. “In light of this, we find their decision to be particularly troubling.”

 By the end of the day American officials, unsure whether Mr. Snowden was actually heading to Ecuador, or possibly Cuba or Venezuela, as also variously reported, were sending messages to an array of possible destinations. |||||
What is a summary?

– Edward Snowden spent the night in Moscow's airport and was expected to fly to Cuba today—but American authorities are making it clear that they'd prefer that the NSA whistleblower was enjoying their hospitality instead. In a statement, the National Security Council said it expects Moscow to look at "all options available to expel Mr. Snowden back to the US to face justice" especially in light of "intensified cooperation after the Boston Marathon bombings and our history of working with Russia on law enforcement matters," CBS reports. But "intensified cooperation" may not be coming: The Washington Post reports that a Russian official today told Interfax that Moscow doesn't have the legal authority to comply with the US government's request. Other officials add that air travelers who don't cross passport control aren't technically on Russian land; because Snowden is without a Russian visa, there's no way he could have gone through passport control. John Kerry is chiming in, adds the AP, calling it "deeply troubling" if Russia allows Snowden to flee. But is Snowden actually Cuba-bound? The airline Aeroflot told the AP he was booked on a Moscow-Havana flight this morning (the expectation being he'd then travel to Venezuela and then to Ecuador, where WikiLeaks says he will seek asylum), prompting a number of journalists to grab seats on said flight. But Snowden apparently never boarded, reports Business Insider via an article with this headline: "Russia Just Punked a Bunch of Journalists Who Are Now On Their Way to Havana." AP Moscow correspondent Max Seddon confirmed that there was no sign of Snowden, tweeting, "Cuba here we come. Taxiing down Sheremetevo runway and no sign of Snowden. Seats empty still by 17A." How did Snowden get out of Hong Kong yesterday to begin with? Despite the Chinese territory's autonomy, the final decision came from Beijing, sources tell the New York Times. The move lets China save face while avoiding a drawn-out extradition battle. Some legal experts are telling the New York Times the US government goofed in waiting until Saturday to revoke Snowden's passport, though charges were filed June 14. Says a former federal prosecutor, "They missed an opportunity to freeze him in place." Still, the Times notes that Snowden may have still been able to fly to Moscow sans passport thanks to special refugee travel documents from Ecuador that WikiLeaks helped Snowden obtain.


Summarize this article:

These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| It is a coup de grâce of American filmmaking that in “The Putin Interviews,” Oliver Stone first strongly recommends and then sits down to watch “Dr. Strangelove,” Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 comedic masterpiece about nuclear apocalypse, with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It’s a combination of proper nouns that sounds like the setup to a one-liner. Putin shifts uneasily in his chair, apparently unused to even the simulated experience of leisure time, as onscreen President Merkin Muffley calls the Russian premier, Dmitri, to inform him that America is about to accidentally nuke the U.S.S.R. Stone then gifts the dinky DVD to Putin, as a kind of good-faith gesture between the director/documentarian/journalist and a strongman leader famously suspicious of anyone who questions his motives. Putin takes it into his office, but just before the door closes, he pushes it back open, confronting Stone and the cameras with his gift. The DVD case is empty; the producers left it in the DVD player. Through his translator, Putin jibes: “Typical American gift.”

 The setup has a punch line after all.

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 Showtime’s “The Putin Interviews,” which might be the most high-stakes documentary the network has ever aired, occasionally carries the lighthearted tone of farce. Love them or hate them, both Stone and Putin — men whose ideologies and reputations precede them — are so idiosyncratic and arresting that their dynamic has a hint of slapstick comedy. “The Putin Interviews” makes use of seemingly dozens of camera angles in every sit-down interview, building a portrait of Putin that is both comprehensive and dizzying — as if no matter how we approach the subject, we cannot slide under his defenses. Stone approaches the material with a slight buffoonery that may be just for show; he has just enough entitlement to blunder past Putin’s politesse, which reveals the Russian leader’s steely reserve underneath. Putin, on his part, is an adept self-spinning machine, with much more deadly charm than comes across in his state appearances. While discussing the Reagan presidency, Stone observes that the former president would have said he faced many of the same obstacles that Putin did. The Russian president retorts, with a sliver of a smile on his face: “Almost being broke and actually being broke are two entirely different things.”

 Stone, a leftist firebrand who has advanced both well-regarded critiques and fringe conspiracy theories in his body of fiction and nonfiction work, put together “The Putin Interviews” from more than 30 hours of footage spanning 12 different conversations with the controversial Russian leader. Stone is less invested in investigating Putin than he is in re-narrativizing the history of American dominance in the post-Vietnam era; Putin is eager to assist him on this journey. The two go deep on America’s long game with NATO and its Middle East strategy that threw arms and money, catastrophically, at fundamentalist Muslims in unstable states. More often than not, Stone and Putin agree — on Edward Snowden, on American overreach, on Hillary Clinton. At times, Stone is skeptical of Putin, but for a leader strongly criticized for his civil rights abuses, it hardly seems that Stone is skeptical enough. On the other hand, there is some value in a profile that the subject finds flattering—it reveals who he wants to be. And Putin is revealed to be a terrifyingly competent leader, with a wide-ranging skill set that has spun circles around American presidents since the Clinton era. Putin gets many opportunities to brag about himself, in a disarming, down-to-earth way. It makes his baldfaced lies and bigotry all the more shocking. But it does not make him seem less dangerous. While enumerating what he sees as American betrayals of Russian trust during the Chechen War, he flicks a speck of dust off of his trousers with controlled, focused intensity. He gives the impression of carefully stoked simmering rage, hovering just at the edge of boiling over. To complete the image of sprawling feudal dominance, in one scene on Putin’s private jet, his administration’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov holds the boom mic as if he’s a lackey waving a palm frond. “The Putin Interviews” identifies him with cheeky specificity, delighting in his embarrassed look to the wide-shot camera.

 In the two installments released to critics, Putin and Stone have not yet broached much on the topic of President Trump’s ties to Russia or the widely acknowledged Russian involvement in influencing the American 2016 election. But in the interviews that precede the election, Putin repeatedly points out that America meddles in Russia’s internal affairs, and the internal affairs of other countries, with impunity. He is, as far as we know, entirely right about that. So now what?

 “The Putin Interviews” is a destabilizing documentary that challenges Americans’ narratives about ourselves and asks the viewer to engage in a conversation with a slippery subject. It’s riveting in how dangerous and intimate it feels, leveraging its multiple camera-angles and hand-held shots to make the viewer feel as if they, too, are in the room with Vladimir Putin. Foreign Affairs will likely have much to dissect in the dialogue, which often sounds like Stone and Putin are playing an invisible game of chess. It’s sobering to realize that if Putin is playing invisible chess with Stone, he is playing garishly lit 3-D chess with America — playing, and winning. ||||| Oliver Stone’s ‘Putin Interviews’ Will Teach You Little About Putin, and Even Less About Russia

 There is a documentary to be made about Russia under President Vladimir Putin that shares the Russian perspective, dispels American myths about the historic U.S. foe, and offers Putin’s perspective on some of the thorniest questions on Russia today.

 Oliver Stone’s The Putin Interviews is not that documentary.

 The Putin Interviews, a four-part series created from two years of conversations between Oliver Stone and Putin, somehow manages to both spout the Kremlin line and fall back on the laziest American clichés about Russia. In the opening credits, a map of the Soviet Union is transformed into a matryoshka doll. In at least the first two of the four parts, Stone aids and abets Putin, who lies by omission and pushes conspiracy theories, all while adding in such helpful information as “Russians are strong” and “Russians are macho.”

 Showtime is touting the series as offering “Unparalleled access to the most controversial man in the world…in his own words.” And there is indeed some information that viewers will get from this access. They will learn that Putin feels he does not have bad days because he is not a woman (women, he explains, have natural cycles). They will learn that Putin has a flexible mentality because of judo. They will learn that Putin’s daughters are not interested in politics and corporate business, but in education and science (“You’re a very lucky man,” Stone says, not mentioning that one of Putin’s daughters is indeed allegedly tied to big business).

 But when Stone recounts Putin’s rise to presidential power, they will learn that he at first rejected Boris Yeltsin’s attempts to make him prime minister, and that he won the office of president the first time with 53 percent of the vote based the successes of his first term. Nowhere is it mentioned that all of this was orchestrated by very wealthy, very powerful anti-communist forces of the day. They will hear Putin say that he did not put an end to privatization, but rather halted unfair schemes that only oligarchs who disrespected rule of law wanted to see continued. And privatization schemes did make oligarchs fabulously wealthy in ways that were not lawful in the 1990s, which were something of a Wild West. But the viewer will then see photos of Boris Berezovsky and Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Viewers will not learn that Berezovsky is one of the men who orchestrated Putin’s rise to power. Nor will they learn he fled to London after he began criticizing Putin, falling out with his his former protege, or that his death in the United Kingdom is still shrouded in mystery. The viewer will not learn that Khodorkovksy’s public accusation of government corruption got him a decade in a Siberian prison cell.

 Viewers will learn that Putin worked as prime minister before returning to the presidency with 63 percent of the vote. If Putin has thoughts about the protests that surrounded his return to the Kremlin, viewers do not learn them; if Stone asked, both question and answer were left on the cutting room floor, at least in the first two hours.

 Stone and Putin discuss Putin’s hesitancy to delegate, and Putin agrees with Stone’s assessment that he is the CEO of the company that is Russia. This could have been an opportunity to hear what Putin thinks of the idea that Russia is a mafia state, or of the connection between business and politics in Russia. Instead, we learn that Putin has “to have this sense of completion” when he begins a task.

 Perhaps most insulting to the viewers, Putin says that he has evidence that the United States provided technical support to the Chechens, against whom Russia waged the first and — and Putin the second Chechen war early in his presidency. Putin says he cannot show Stone that evidence, however. Stone accepts that he cannot see this evidence and says it is contradictory that the United States would fight terror in Afghanistan while supporting it in Russia, which is perhaps the most simplistic rendering of the Chechen wars possible. Stone’s documentary doesn’t discuss how the Second Chechen War boosted Putin’s approval ratings, or that the Moscow bombings that the Kremlin blamed on Chechens were carried out by Russian agents. We see graphics showing the death tolls in the 2002 terror attack on a theater in Moscow and that of a 2004 attack on a school in Beslan. That many of the casualties in both cases were caused by a bungled Russian security response is not brought up.

 It would be one thing if Stone just let Putin speak and reveal himself, allowing the audience some unique insight into a famous politician, similar to what Eroll Moris did with former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in Fog of War. But Stone is not content to hear Putin’s side. He wants to encourage Putin’s side. He says he fears American neo-conservatives and their hunger for war (Putin fears them, too). He presents Foreign Affairs as an official government outlet. Foreign Affairs is many things — a journal, a leading publication, an outlet often confused with Foreign Policy — but it is not an official government publication.

 In fact, the essays Stone presents to Putin come from the May/June 2016 issue, “Putin’s Russia: Down But Not Out.” Maria Lipman, Sergei Guriev, Gleb Pavlovsky (who used to advise the Kremlin), Daniel Treisman, and Stephen Kotkin all contributed writing for that issue. The authors are academics and think tank analysts and Russians.

 Nevertheless, Stone tells Putin that he’s up against the official line. He points out the irony of Edward Snowden defecting to Russia — Soviet citizens, after all, used to defect to the United States. It’s not ironic, Putin says, because Russia is a democracy. That protesters from the Bolotnaya Square case — twelve of the 400 activists who were detained protesting Putin’s regime — were on trial as Snowden stayed in the Sheremetyevo Moscow airport is not a point Stone felt compelled to raise.

 To be fair, there is one moment at the end of the second hour in which Putin gets a chance to respond to claims that Russia is not democratic. He says the issue is that the Russian people don’t want to vote for any of his opponents. And this may be true. We are then treated to a series of clips of opposition figures who are backed by the Kremlin. They are candidates from parties other than Putin’s United Russia who run with the Kremlin’s blessing to show some semblance of opposition. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, one of the men shown, is one such longstanding figure. Alexei Navalny, the actual opposition candidate of Russia currently running for president, is nowhere to be seen.

 At the very end of the second hour, Stone, who filmed the interviews prior to the 2016 presidential election, asks Putin what he thinks of the candidates. Putin declines to comment on the candidates. This is not his place; he will work with whoever is elected. Stone marvels at this restraint. “If you say you didn’t like Trump, he’d win,” Stone tells Putin. “You have that amount of power in the U.S.”

 This isn’t true, of course. Though hardly effusive, Putin’s statements about Trump during the election were generally positive. And Trump won. But the exchange is telling as emblematic of the entire series: at best, misguided, and at worst, just wrong.

 Photo credit: OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP/Getty Images ||||| When America sends its people to interview Vladimir Putin, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending an Anderson Cooper or a Christiane Amanpour, intrepid journalists well-versed in geopolitics and the art of the spiel. They’re sending people like Megyn Kelly, a race-baiter who rode the wave of one semi-challenging debate question all the way to a cushy gig at NBC News, or Oliver Stone, a revisionist history buff who’s spent the past few decades cozying up to dictators like Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Putin.

 Yes, in addition to qualifying Hitler and claiming the Jews run the media, Stone helmed the 2014 documentary Ukraine on Fire—a bizarre slice of Kremlin propaganda alleging that the CIA orchestrated the 2014 Ukrainian revolution (based on scant evidence), and featuring cameos from Viktor Yanukovych and Putin. If that weren’t enough, in September, the JFK filmmaker posited that the Democratic National Committee hack was an inside job and not, as 17 U.S. intelligence agencies concluded, the work of Russian agents. Stone’s The Putin Interviews, a new four-part series debuting on Showtime on June 12, should thus be viewed as nothing short of hero worship; the rough equivalent of a Twihard probing Robert Pattinson or Donald Trump interrogating a tacky gold chair.

 The Putin Interviews, a documentary comprised of conversations with the Russian president that took place between July 2015 and February 2017, is clearly intended to humanize Putin and demonize America. In the first two parts provided to press, there are scenes of Putin feeding horses and strolling through lush gardens as string instruments sound; footage of the sexagenarian schooling men one-third of his age in hockey; and fawning Stone comments ranging from “You have a lot of discipline, Sir” to “You are a very lucky man” to “What do you bench?” OK, that last one I made up.

 Stone not only fails to challenge Putin, but essentially cedes him the floor, allowing the cunning ex-KGB operative to spin more than the president’s toupee in a tornado. Putin denies Russia was the aggressor in virtually every global conflict, including the invasions of Georgia and Ukraine. He champions Russia’s economy over that of the U.S., despite his GDP being a little more than half that of California’s. He even blames the Cuban Missile Crisis on the U.S.

 At one point Stone, in an apparent effort to name-drop one of his movies, asks Putin: “Is Wall Street actively working to destroy the Russian economy in the interests of the United States?” He shrugs it off. “Do you think the National Security Agency had gone too far in its eavesdropping?” Of course he does.

 Some of the director’s lame questions bear fruit in spite of themselves. When Stone asks Putin, “Do you ever have a bad day?” during a tour of the throne room, the Russian strongman giddily answers, “I’m not a woman so I don’t have bad days.” He then doubles down on the misogyny, explaining that, “There are certain natural cycles which men probably have as well, just less manifested. We are all human beings. It’s normal. But you should never lose control.”

 A conversation about whether gays can serve in the military in Russia leads to the Stone question: “If you’re taking a shower in a submarine with a man and you know he’s gay, do they have a problem with that?”

 Putin’s answer is not only homophobic, but completely bonkers. “Well, I prefer not to go to shower with him,” exclaims a cackling Putin. “Why provoke him? But you know, I’m a judo master and a SAMBO master as well. And I can tell you this, that as head of state today, I believe it’s my duty to uphold traditional values and family values. But why? Because same-sex marriages will not produce any children. God has decided, and we have to care about birth rates in our country. We have to reinforce families. But that doesn’t mean that there should be any persecutions against anyone.”

 The lion’s share of The Putin Interviews’ B-roll consists of news clips from RT, the propaganda arm of the Kremlin, and pro-Russia graphics. Putin admits to never having seen Dr. Strangelove, and, in the first two episodes’ most surreal sequence, the two sit down to watch Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 Cold War satire. “[Kubrick] foresaw some issues even from a technical point of view, things that make us think about real threats that exist,” Putin says in his mini-review. “The thing is that since that time, little has changed. The only difference is that the modern weapons systems have become more sophisticated, more complex. But this idea of a retaliatory weapon, and the inability to control such weapons systems, still hold true to this day. It has become even more difficult, even more dangerous.”

 Stone and Putin chat in various locations throughout the doc, from the halls of the Kremlin to the great outdoors. In one exchange aboard Putin’s plane, he reveals his unvarnished thoughts on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

 “There is no longer an Eastern Bloc, no more Soviet Union. Therefore, why does NATO keep existing? My impression is that in order to justify its existence, NATO has a need of an external foe, there is a constant search for the foe, or some acts of provocation to name someone as an adversary,” says Putin.

 “Nowadays, NATO is a mere instrument of foreign policy of the U.S. It has no allies, it has only vassals. Once a country becomes a NATO member, it is hard to resist the pressures of the U.S.,” he continues. “And all of a sudden any weapon system can be placed in this country. An anti-ballistic missile system, new military bases, and if need be, new offensive systems. And what are we supposed to do? In this case we have to take countermeasures. We have to aim our missile systems at facilities that are threatening us. The situation becomes more tense. Why are we so acutely responding to the expansion of NATO? Well, as a matter of fact, we understand the value or lack thereof, and the threat of this organization. But what we’re concerned about is the following: We are concerned by the practice of how decisions are taken. I know how decisions are taken there.”

 Huddled inside a car with Putin behind the wheel—in what is without question the worst episode of Carpool Karaoke ever—they discuss the plight of whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor who was granted asylum in Russia after leaking top-secret government documents revealing a complex web of surveillance conducted by the U.S. against its allies and own citizens. Putin claims that the U.S. refused to agree to a deal years back that “stipulated for a mutual extradition of criminals,” and since “Snowden didn’t violate any [Russian] law,” and since “the U.S. has never extradited any criminals to us who have sought asylum there,” they refused to extradite Snowden back to America.

 While he doesn’t agree with what Snowden did, Putin refers to him as “courageous” several times and asserts, “Snowden is not a traitor. He didn’t betray the interests of his country. Nor did he transfer any information to any other country which would have been pernicious to his own country or to his own people. The only thing Snowden does he does publicly.”

 The 2016 U.S. presidential election is briefly mentioned during a February 2016 chat within the halls of the Kremlin, with Putin maintaining that Russia is “going to be ready to work with whoever gets elected by the people of the United States.” When he adds, “I believe nothing is going to change no matter who gets elected,” he can’t help but unleash a knowing smirk.

 Stone suggests that Putin could influence the U.S. election by endorsing a candidate, thereby causing his or her popularity to plummet. “Unlike many partners of ours, we never interfere within the domestic affairs of other countries,” replies Putin, smiling wide. “That is one of the principles we stick to in our work.”

 The Putin Interviews offer, first and foremost, a staggering display of mendacity on the part of both interviewer and interviewee. During a back and forth aboard his jet, Putin claims to have in his possession a letter from the CIA admitting that they provided technical support to the Chechens—including terrorist organizations—during the Second Chechen War. When Stone requests that he provide the letter, Putin responds, “I don’t think it would be appropriate. My words are enough.”

 For Oliver Stone, they most certainly are. ||||| He could be just another Moscow commuter driving home from the office. Except that’s President Vladimir Putin behind the wheel as filmmaker Oliver Stone quizzes him on the fugitive Edward Snowden in a scene from his new documentary on the Russian leader.

 The unusually smooth car journey through Moscow’s normally traffic-clogged streets isn’t the only strange moment in The Putin Interviews, the Oscar-winning director’s four-part documentary. While Putin expounds on favorite subjects including U.S. geopolitical overreach, he’s also shown staring stone-faced at the classic Cold War doomsday satire Dr. Strangelove. He explained that he never has an off day as president because he’s a man.

 Vladimir Putin works out. Photographer: Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP via Getty Images

 “I am not a woman, so I don’t have bad days,” he tells Stone while giving a tour of the Kremlin’s gilded throne room. “I am not trying to insult anyone. That’s just the nature of things. There are certain natural cycles.”

 The director of JFK and Wall Street enjoyed extensive access to Putin for numerous meetings from July 2015 to February 2017, giving viewers a peek into the life of one of the world’s most powerful and secretive leaders. The first two hour-long episodes of the Showtime special that airs June 12-15, which were made available to Bloomberg before their release, offered little that’s new about the former KGB agent who’s ruled Russia for more than 17 years.

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 The documentary follows on the heels of Putin’s interview in this week’s debut of NBC News’ “Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly,” as controversy swirls in the U.S. over alleged Kremlin meddling in the 2016 presidential elections and ties to President Donald Trump. Former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Trump last month, is due to testify to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday about investigations into the allegations. Trump has dismissed the claims as “fake news.”

 Flexing Muscles

 On the former National Security Agency contractor, Putin told Stone that “our first contact with Mr. Snowden was in China,” as he explained that Russia offered asylum because “we were told back then that this was a person who wanted to fight against violations of human rights.”

 Elsewhere, Putin is shown indulging his now-familiar passion for playing ice hockey, and flexing his muscles on an exercise machine. He told Stone that he lifts weights and then swims every day. Putin’s also seen feeding carrots to a thoroughbred horse named after Dutch theoretical physicist Johannes Diderik van der Waals at his residence.

 Throughout, the three-time Oscar-winner uses an interview style that allows the Russian leader to set the tone, while the documentary avoids fact-checking Putin’s remarks or interviewing opposition figures.

 ‘Judo Master’

 At times, it’s the Kremlin leader that seems to be the voice of moderation. Stone, who’s previously made films lauding the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, asks, “is Wall Street actively working to destroy the Russian economy in the interests of the United States?” Putin demurs, saying only that the U.S. Administration views Russia as “a competitor.”

 In the barest hint of criticism, Stone also asked Putin if a law passed in 2013 outlawing gay propaganda to minors meant homosexuals faced discrimination. “There are no restrictions whatsoever,” Putin said, contrasting Russia with some Islamic states where he said gays face the death penalty.

 But asked if he’d take a shower in a submarine next to a gay man, the Russian leader replied, laughing: “Well, I prefer not to go to the shower with him. Why provoke him? But you know, I’m a judo master.”

 While Dr. Strangelove apparently left him unmoved, Putin became more animated discussing what he sees as modern-day challenges to the nuclear theory of mutually assured destruction, particularly the U.S. program to develop a missile-defense shield.

 “As of today a missile shield would not protect the territory of the United States,” he tells Stone after the director points out that it was U.S. Independence Day. “Nobody would survive” a war between nuclear superpowers, he said. |||||

– Oliver Stone's The Putin Interviews, a four-part documentary for which the director got "extensive access" to the Russian president between July 2015 and February 2017, airs on Showtime June 12-15, and Bloomberg got early access to the first two episodes. Bloomberg notes that they offer "little that's new" about Putin, but that doesn't mean there aren't interesting moments, such as Putin being shown working out on an exercise machine, feeding a horse, or playing ice hockey. Three notable quotes: No bad days: "I am not a woman, so I don’t have bad days. I am not trying to insult anyone. That’s just the nature of things. There are certain natural cycles." On whether he'd shower in a submarine next to a gay man: "Well, I prefer not to go to the shower with him. Why provoke him? But you know, I’m a judo master." On the prospect of a war between nuclear superpowers: "As of today a missile shield would not protect the territory of the United States. Nobody would survive." Reviews for the documentary are varied, with many criticizing Stone for seeming to encourage Putin instead of challenging him. Foreign Policy says the documentary "somehow manages to both spout the Kremlin line and fall back on the laziest American clichés about Russia," while the Daily Beast calls it a "wildly irresponsible love letter" to Putin. But other outlets are not so critical; Variety, for example, says it's "a surprisingly intimate set of conversations" that creates "a destabilizing portrait" of Putin. (Putin was also recently interviewed by Megyn Kelly.)


Article:

Ford announced plans today to invest $1 billion over the course of five years into a new, previously unheard of artificial intelligence startup called Argo AI. The company, which has operated in secret out of its Pittsburgh headquarters for months, was founded by Bryan Salesky, a multi-year veteran of Google’s self-driving team, and Peter Rander, who led autonomous efforts at Uber up until September 2016. Ford’s goal is to tap into Argo AI’s expertise to help establish the car company as a leader in the autonomous space.

 Argo AI is a stealth self-driving startup out of Pittsburgh

 The deal effectively means Ford is buying Argo and taking a majority stake in the company, though Ford is framing the deal as an investment instead of an acquisition. “From an accounting standpoint, [Argo AI] is a subsidiary,” said Ford CEO Mark Fields today at an event in San Francisco. “But in terms of how they’re operating and how we’re structuring the board, this gives them a lot of independence.” For instance, Ford and Argo plan to use equity in the startup as a recruiting incentive to lure engineers away from joining competitors.

 As part of the partnership, Argo AI will help Ford develop the autonomous system for a self-driving vehicle the car company plans to put on the road by 2021. “Argo AI’s initial focus will be solely and exclusively to support Ford’s efforts to bring our autonomous vehicle to the marketplace,” Fields said. He added that a focus for Argo and Ford down the line may include licensing out the self-driving system to other companies. (Argo AI could also explore an initial public offering, if Ford’s plans to commercialize and license its software pan out.) This effort is similar to one launched by Volvo last year, in which the Swedish car maker partnered with automative safety supplier Autoliv to develop and license self-driving software.

 Ford may be one of the largest American companies, but it does not have pockets as deep as Apple and Google. That makes this $1 billion investment a significant push to own the expertise of some of the robotics world’s brightest and most experienced self-driving experts. It’s in line with Ford’s recent strategy, which has seen the American car company pour money into autonomous hardware and software. Last year, Ford joined with Chinese search giant Baidu to invest $150 million in Velodyne, the makers of leading LIDAR sensors, to make the essential hardware cheaper to produce.

 Ford is competing with Silicon Valley to own autonomous expertise

 An arms race is already underway between the auto and tech industries to own the knowledge and know-how around bringing self-driving cars out of the research phase and into the market. Competitive hybrid companies like Tesla are aggressively updating its Autopilot software. Meanwhile, Alphabet Inc.’s new Waymo division is ramping up commercial efforts and Uber is testing a self-driving ride-hailing service.

 Ford clearly does not want to see Silicon Valley outbid it for top talent. And because autonomous vehicles require extensive knowledge of computer vision, robotics, machine learning, and other complex fields, the talent pool is relatively narrow. (Both Salesky and Rander are alumni of the Carnegie Mellon National Robotics Engineering Center, the Pittsburgh-based academic division from which Uber poached a hefty chunk of its self-driving team.) So by scooping up Argo, Ford is staking out a strong position in the industry that may give it an edge over tech companies.

 “We founded [Argo AI] with the intent and the vision to see self-driving vehicles be made available and at scale,” Salesky said at the Ford event. “In order to do that you really need the scale and know-how of a company like Ford.” Ford declined to answer questions about the size of Argo’s team, but Salesky said he hopes his company will expand to more than 200 people by the end of the year.

 A ride in Ford’s first self-driving car ||||| Ford will be the majority stakeholder in Argo AI. Based in Silicon Valley, Argo AI will operate with substantial independence

 From left: Peter Rander, Argo AI COO; Mark Fields, Ford president and CEO; Bryan Salesky, Argo AI CEO; and Raj Nair, Ford executive vice president, Product Development, and chief technical officer. Ford is investing $1 billion during the next five years in Argo AI, combining Ford’s autonomous vehicle development expertise with Argo AI’s robotics experience and startup speed on artificial intelligence software. (Photo: Ford Motor Company)

 SAN FRANCISCO — Ford is betting $1 billion on the world's self-driving car future through a majority investment in a small start-up company called Argo AI as it tries to win the high-stakes talent war in the emerging self-driving car industry.

 Ford said the deal combines a group of Ford employees along with Ford’s virtual driver system — the brains of autonomous vehicles — with the talent and expertise of Argo AI's founders and their robotics experience.

 The company was cofounded a few months ago by Google car project veteran Bryan Salesky and Uber engineer Peter Rander, who met while working at Carnegie Mellon University's vaunted robotics and engineering school.

 Ford CEO Mark Fields and Argo AI executives declined to say exactly how much money Ford is paying to become a majority stakeholder in Argo AI, or even exactly how many employees currently work for the start-up.

 But they did make it clear that a good bit of the $1-billion figure will be deployed over a period of five years as the company works to attract and retain the brightest minds in the fast-paced self-driving vehicle industry, which has been marked by talent wars for the best engineers and software developers.

 In 2015, Uber poached about 40 engineers from Carnegie Mellon in a move that left one of the world’s top robotics research institutions in a crisis. Last month, Tesla filed a lawsuit against Sterling Anderson, the former director of its Autopilot program, for leaving the company to join Chris Urmson, a former director of Google's Self-Driving Car Project, to form a start-up called Aurora.

 "This is a move by Ford to be able to attract and retain talent," said Mike Ramsey, an analyst for Gartner, a research firm. "They are setting up a structure that allows them to pay big money…for some of these guys who are really hard to get."

 Argo AI, which is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., will have offices in Michigan and California and expects to have 200 employees by the end of this year.

 The company has been structured so it can operate independently of Ford. The structure gives Argo AI the ability to provide both Ford employees who will join the start-up and new Argo AI employees with significant equity ownership stakes in the company.

 "That is very important …we are one team, we have to reflect that in the way we compensate everyone," said Raj Nair, Ford's executive vice president of product development. "Ford Motor Co.'s equity is based on the much larger automotive and manufacturing business."

 Ford's investment also is part of a continuing investment strategy anchored to transforming the car and truck seller into a mobility company with a hand in ride-hailing, ride-sharing and even bicycle rentals.

 President and CEO of Ford Motor Company Mark Fields talks with Vice President Joe Biden and Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, D-Michigan next to the Ford Fusion autonomous vehicle while touring the 2017 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, January 10, 2017. (Photo: JIM WATSON, AFP/Getty Images)

 "The reason for the investment is not only to drive the delivery of our own autonomous vehicles by 2021, but also to deliver value to our shareholders by creating a software platform that can be licensed to others," Fields said. "This move gets us the agility and speed of a start-up combined with Ford's global scale."

 Salesky, a self-driving car hardware specialist who left Google's renamed Waymo car program last fall, said that he decided to start his own company with Rander because of "the incredible advancements in machine learning, artificial intelligence and computer vision, but we just needed a partner to get these cars into the hands of millions of people."

 Salesky, who said he spoke with a number of partners, said he liked Ford's approach to self-driving cars better than other potential partners.

 "We were very impressed. When we talked to others, it was very clear that Ford was one of the few manufacturers that really understands the full ecosystem that needs to come together for self-driving cars," Salesky said.

 Ford has made other efforts to ramp up its self-driving car program.

 Last spring, Ford invested $182 million in Pivotal, a Silicon Valley-based software development company.

 Ford also said in August it would invest $75 million in Velodyne, a developer of light detection and ranging sensors essential for self-driving cars, and separately said it would double its staff in Palo Alto, Calif., to 260 by the end of this year.

 The Dearborn automaker said it plans to increase its team of researchers, engineers and scientists from 130 to 260 by the end of 2017.

 Ford's early stage investment in Argo AI reflects a growing desire on the part of automakers and tech companies to combine forces in order to tackle the still daunting task of making autonomous driving an everyday reality.

 Last year, General Motors paid $581 million to acquire Cruise Automation, a San Francisco-based start-up that develops software for autonomous vehicles.

 The Ford Fusion Autonomous car is displayed at the 2017 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, January 10, 2017. (Photo: GEOFF ROBINS, AFP/Getty Images)

 Uber is busy testing self-driving car software in a $300-million partnership with Volvo, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has teamed up with Waymo to create a fleet of 100 self-driving Pacifica hybrid minivans. Waymo CEO John Krafcik, a veteran of Hyundai North America, has also indicated that his company plans to sell its technology to other automakers.

 Chinese giant Baidu had hoped to give its self-driving program a boost through a partnership with BMW, before that venture fell through last fall due to differences on project trajectory. And a growing number of small start-ups, such as Silicon Valley's Drive.ai, also are looking to grab a slice of this pie.

 Most experts working in this increasingly crowded field are targeting 2021 for delivering autonomous cars to consumers, likely as part of a commercial ride-sharing fleet.

 Argo AI will focus on what amounts to the self-driving car's computer brain, which relies on computer algorithms to process data coming from an array of sensors — radar, lasers, cameras — that help the car navigate through its environment.

 "That virtual driver system, that brain, needs a platform to power, and that's where our expertise in building cars comes in," Nair said.

 Contact Brent Snavely: 313-222-6512 or bsnavely@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrentSnavely.

 Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2kYE5M6 ||||| The race to build a self-driving car keeps getting more intense -- and expensive.

 Ford (F) announced Friday afternoon it would invest $1 billion over five years in a previously unheard of startup. Argo AI, led by Google and Uber veterans, will combine with Ford's existing team to develop a fully self-driving car.

 It's the latest high-priced investment that a major company has made in self-driving car engineers.

 Almost a year ago, General Motors (GM) spent $1 billion to acquire Cruise Automation. And last August, Uber spent $680 million on Otto, a self-driving car startup led by former Google (GOOGL) engineers that hadn't even existed a year before.

 Related: You car's data may soon be more valuable than the car itself

 Argo AI is a startup that hadn't even been publicly announced. And Ford hasn't acquired all of the startup, it's only the majority stockholder. Argo AI engineers will have equity in the company, which should help it attract talent. Other companies have tried similar arrangements amid intense competition for qualified engineers.

 When Google spun off its self-driving car project as Waymo in December, CEO John Krafcik said the arrangement would help it to better align incentives for employees.

 Argo AI plans to have 200 employees by year's end. They will be split between Silicon Valley, Michigan and Pittsburgh.

 Argo AI CEO Bryan Salesky spent three years working at Google's self-driving car program. He left in 2016. His cofounder, Peter Rander, spent nearly two years working on Uber's autonomous vehicle team in Pittsburgh.

 Experts have long warned that legacy automakers such as Ford risk being disrupted by tech companies like Google. Tech companies have the software expertise that is necessary to build a safe self-driving car.

 The doomsday scenario for automakers is to turn into Nokia, which was a global leader in cell phones -- until Apple unveiled the iPhone. Nokia wasn't able to keep up during the smartphone revolution and watched as SiIlicon Valley titans Apple (AAPL) and Google sucked up their profits.

 Ford is clearly willing to spend a lot of money to avoid such a fate. ||||| If you had to pick a single buzzword to define the auto industry of late, it would have to be "mobility." Car companies are coming to grips with demographic and socioeconomic changes and the rise of the sharing economy and are moving beyond the old way of doing business, i.e., just building cars and selling them to customers. Ford has been on the leading edge of this trend, announcing in August last year that it plans to put an SAE level 4 autonomous vehicle into mass production as a ride-sharing service in 2021. Today, it announced that, as part of that plan, it is investing $1 billion over five years in a company called Argo AI, a startup led by the former leads of Google and Uber's self-driving programs.

 Further Reading Q&A: Ford’s futurist knows kids today see status in their smartphones, not cars "The next decade will be defined by the automation of the automobile, and autonomous vehicles will have as significant an impact on society as Ford's moving assembly line did 100 years ago," said Ford president and CEO Mark Fields. "As Ford expands to be an auto and a mobility company, we believe that investing in Argo AI will create significant value for our shareholders by strengthening Ford's leadership in bringing self-driving vehicles to market in the near term and by creating technology that could be licensed to others in the future."

 This isn't the first strategic investment in self-driving technology from the Blue Oval. As part of last August's reveal, the company announced it was investing in lidar sensor-maker Velodyne and 3D-mapping company Civil Maps. Ford also purchased a machine-vision company called SAIPS and entered into a licensing agreement with another, Nirenberg Neuroscience.

 Argo AI's work will focus on what Ford is calling the Virtual Driver System, the AI software that will be used by its autonomous vehicles. (Argo also says it will be open to licensing this technology platform to other OEMs.) One reason for the investment is the need to attract the talent required to hit the 2021 deadline. While Ford will be the majority shareholder in Argo AI, the company is structured to be able to offer what Fields described as "competitive equity" to employees.

 Further Reading Video: Find out how technology is changing Ford with its CTO, Raj Nair And some of Ford's current employees working on the software side of the company will be moved over to Argo AI (enabling them to benefit from the equity offer), although those working on the hardware and vehicle design side of things will remain with Ford. Argo AI is based in Pittsburgh; co-founders Brian Salesky and Peter Rander are both alumni of Carnegie Mellon National Robotics Engineering Center. However, the company will also be recruiting in Silicon Valley and south Michigan.

 "Working together with Argo AI gives Ford a distinct competitive advantage at the intersection of the automotive and technology industries," said Raj Nair, Ford executive vice president of global product development and chief technical officer. "This open collaboration is unlike any other partnership—allowing us to benefit from combining the speed of a startup with Ford's strengths in scaling technology, systems integration, and vehicle design." |||||
What is a summary?

– Ford has made another big bet on the future of self-driving cars, investing $1 billion in previously unknown startup Argo AI. "The next decade will be defined by the automation of the automobile," Ford CEO Mark Fields said in a statement, per Ars Technica, predicting that self-driving technology will change the world as much as the Ford assembly line did a century ago. The investment buys a lot of self-driving know-how for Ford: Argo AI CEO Bryan Salesky worked on Google's self-driving car program for years, while co-founder Peter Rander spent years with Uber's program, CNN reports. Ford is now the majority stakeholder in the startup and Fields says that while it is now a subsidiary "from an accounting standpoint," Argo will be given a lot of independence. Equity in the firm will be offered to tempt engineers away from other companies, the Verge reports. Salesky tells the Detroit Free Press that they spoke to several possible partners and decided they were most impressed by Ford's vision for self-driving vehicles. "When we talked to others, it was very clear that Ford was one of the few manufacturers that really understands the full ecosystem that needs to come together for self-driving cars," he says.


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– Let the Katie Couric bidding war begin in earnest: Couric confirmed to People that she is indeed leaving her job as anchor of CBS Evening News to focus on "multidimensional storytelling" elsewhere. Exactly what that means is unclear, but TV Guide quotes sources as saying she's close to a deal with ABC, where she'd have a big presence on its network news programs and prime-time specials. TMZ, meanwhile, says she's in talks to stay at CBS with a syndicated talk show. And rumors of a reunion with Matt Lauer remain in the mix as well. Her contract isn't up until June, so don't expect to know much for sure before then. "I have decided to step down from the CBS Evening News," Couric says. "I'm really proud of the talented team on the CBS Evening News and the award-winning work we've been able to do in the past five years in addition to the reporting I've done for 60 Minutes and CBS Sunday Morning. In making the decision to move on, I know the Evening News will be in great hands, but I am excited about the future." Click for more.

Katie Couric I'm LEAVING CBS News

 has finally made it official -- announcing moments ago that she's decided to "step down" from her post at the "."Couric told People.com, "In making the decision to move on, I know the Evening News will be in great hands, but I am excited about the future."As for Couric's future in TV, she added, "I am looking at a format that will allow me to engage in more multi-dimensional storytelling."Couric insists the details -- including which network she will land with -- are "still being discussed."As TMZ previously reported, she is talking with CBS about a possible daytime syndicated show ... in addition in continuing with the news division -- probably "."Couric's contract is up in June -- it's likely she won't leave the show until then.TMZ broke the story -- Katie's replacement will be "" correspondent-- we're told that announcement will be made sometime around May 6. ||||| CBS Thinks ABC Will Get Katie Couric

 Exiting CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric now appears headed for a deal at ABC, according to sources familiar with the talks.

 There is still an offer on the table for Couric to stay at CBS with a syndicated talk show and a role on the newsmagazine show 60 Minutes. But ABC has made a big push for a Couric talk show plus even wider exposure across its network news platforms, including a presence on its 2012 presidential election coverage and prime time specials. CBS News is not willing to match that end of the offer. NBC, which had expressed interest, is no longer in the running.

 One person close to Couric described the ABC move as "a distinct possibility."

 Sources say CBS News insiders initially accepted the idea of having Couric keep a role in the division, but have grown weary with the drawn-out negotiation process. "They are ready to wish her well," says one person close to the talks.

 "No comment," says a spokesman at ABC News.

 Couric is expected to officially confirm her departure from The CBS Evening News this week, with no announcement on her next move. 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley will be named as her successor on the evening newscast. Couric has been in the job since September 2006.

 ABC's last minute surge to get Couric may be driven by the loss of The Oprah Winfrey Show on its owned and operated TV stations. "They are still in the station business," says one industry insider. "They are not going to go with those new daytime shows after killing their soaps and losing Oprah, leading into the evening news and prime time."

 Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now! ||||| NEW YORK -- Katie Couric has confirmed that she's leaving her anchor job at the "CBS Evening News."Couric also told People magazine in a story published Tuesday on its website that she hasn't decided what she's doing next. But she says she is "looking at a format that will allow me to engage in more multi-dimensional storytelling."The Associated Press reported three weeks ago that Couric's tenure as CBS anchor would end just short of five years in the job. Her contract expires June 4.CBS has not set an exit date but is expected to appoint Scott Pelley of "60 Minutes" as her successor as early as next week.Couric was unable to move the "CBS Evening News" out of third place in the ratings. |||||