News Headlines - 18 May 2017

▽Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russians: sources | Reuters

Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters... Six of the previously undisclosed contacts described to Reuters were phone calls between Sergei Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the United States, and Trump advisers, including Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, three current and former officials said.
Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations, four current U.S. officials said.

▽One Dead and 22 Injured as Car Rams Into Pedestrians in Times Square - The New York Times

A driver with a history of drunken driving arrests plowed through crowds of pedestrians on packed sidewalks along three Times Square blocks Thursday, killing one person and injuring 22 others, officials said, touching off mayhem in one of the world’s most famous and busiest plazas.

▽Toyota, 3 other automakers settle suit over Takata air bags for $553 million - Chicago Tribune

Toyota, Subaru, Mazda and BMW have reached a proposed settlement that would compensate owners of 15.8 million vehicles for money they lost due to the massive recall of Takata air bags.

▽EU fines Facebook 110 million euros over WhatsApp deal | Reuters

European Union antitrust regulators fined Facebook 110 million euros ($122 million) on Thursday for giving misleading information during a vetting of its deal to acquire messaging service WhatsApp in 2014... "The Commission has found that, contrary to Facebook's statements in the 2014 merger review process, the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook and WhatsApp users' identities already existed in 2014, and that Facebook staff were aware of such a possibility," the Commission said.

▽Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell dies at 52 - The Boston Globe

Chris Cornell, one of the most lauded and respected contemporary lead singers in rock music with his bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, killed himself Wednesday by hanging in a Detroit hotel room, according to the city’s medical examiner. He was 52.