Trump’s senior advisers were thrown when he told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that he expected to meet with him soon, as briefings before the call to Moscow included no mention of a possible meeting, and aides have not been instructed to prepare for one, senior administration officials said.
Although Trump told reporters that “probably we’ll be seeing President Putin in the not-too-distant future,” several officials said there are no plans for the two even to be in the same country until November, when both are expected to attend a Group of 20 summit in Argentina.
How Cambridge Analytica’s whistleblower became Facebook’s unlikely foe
he crisis ravaging Facebook started when a young researcher, regretful over his role in turning data on an estimated tens of millions of U.S. voters into a high-tech political persuasion machine, decided to come forward with his story. And he imagined that Facebook, whose user profiles were part of that effort, could be a partner in helping to exhume this painful truth and perhaps embrace some changes to its privacy policy.
But instead of a joint announcement, Christopher Wylie awoke early Saturday in London, where he lives, to the news that Facebook had published a blog post announcing the suspensions of him, his former employer and one other person for allegedly mishandling Facebook data in an incident that happened in 2014 and had been known to Facebook for more than a year.
That explosive moment last weekend turned Wylie, 28, into an unlikely foe of one of the tech industry’s most powerful and lucrative companies.
The Guardian
Climate science on trial as high-profile US case takes on fossil fuel industry
The science of climate change was on trial Wednesday when leading experts testified about the threats of global warming in a US court while a fossil fuel industry lawyer fighting a high-profile lawsuit sought to deflect blame for rising sea levels.
The hearing was part of a courtroom showdown between liberal California cities and powerful oil corporations, including Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and BP. San Francisco and Oakland have sued the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies, arguing that they are responsible for damages related to global warming.
While climate change-related cases have entered courtrooms throughout the US, the judge in the California case, William Alsup, took the unusual step of convening a formal “tutorial” on the subject “so that the poor judge can learn some science”, allowing renowned experts and some of the biggest oil companies to answer key questions.
Federal Reserve raises interest rates again amid 'strong' jobs market
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates again on Wednesday, arguing that the US jobs market was “strong” and signalled it may accelerate the pace of increases next year.
The quarter percentage point rise to a range of 1.5% to 1.75% was the sixth such increase since 2015 and comes as the Fed appears to be moving, slightly, more quickly to end an era of historically low interest rates that began during the last recession.
The announcement came as the Fed chair, Jerome “Jay” Powell, gave his first press conference in the role he took over from his predecessor Janet Yellen in February. His surprise-free performance left US financial markets barely changed.
Los Angeles Times
Congress reaches deal on trillion-dollar bill that hikes defense and domestic spending
House and Senate negotiators reached tentative agreement Wednesday on a $1.3-trillion bill that would boost both defense and domestic spending, but at the same time put off solutions to other contentious issues, such as the fate of young immigrants in the country illegally.
The announcement of the deal late Wednesday came two days before the federal government would have been forced to shut down. The House and Senate now face a narrow opening to approve the 2,232-page measure by Friday.
Stormy weather, or how a meeting at a golf resort blew up into a Trump scandal
The president and the porn star sounds like a twisted variant on a fairy tale, or one of those Hollywood rom-coms, or maybe something from the oeuvre of Stephanie Clifford…
Now Daniels is enmeshed in a legal battle with…Trump over a purported 2006 affair and charges that Trump, through an intermediary, bought her silence in the waning days of the 2016 presidential race.
Trump faces other accusers.
BBC News
Nicolas Sarkozy: French ex-president under formal investigation
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been placed under formal investigation over allegations he received campaign funding from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
He is being investigated for illicit campaign financing, misappropriation of Libyan public funds and passive corruption. He was released on Wednesday following two days of questioning over the financing of his 2007 campaign.
Brexit: EU leaders set to discuss transition agreement
EU leaders will gather on Thursday for a summit at which they are expected to approve the terms of a transition deal with the UK after Brexit.
The EU's Donald Tusk said on Wednesday he had recommended a draft legal text on transition, citizens' rights and other withdrawal issues to its members.
It followed Spanish concerns over how the accord would affect its demands for a say on how Brexit affects Gibraltar.
The transition is set for exit day on 29 March 2019 until the end of 2020.
Haaretz
Syria Strike Revealed The Intelligence Failure: It Took Years for Israel to Discover Syria's Reactor
The excitement of the Israeli political and security leadership after the successful operation to bomb the Syrian reactor quickly obscured a critical question: How did Bashar Assad’s secret nuclear project escape the notice of Israel’s intelligence community, which boasted for years about its ability to track even the slightest shifts in military deployments by its northern neighbor?
Neither the Olmert government nor the intelligence community seriously addressed this question by means of an in-depth investigation. The failure to detect the Libyan nuclear program (see main article) in 2003 led to extensive criticism and a classified investigation by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which became a source of much tension between committee chair MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) and the heads of the various intelligence branches. In the case of the Syrian reactor, however, the tremendous lapse seems to have somehow been forgotten – apart from mention in some internal reviews in the intelligence organizations that were never fully addressed or resolved in an intra-organizational framework.
Reuters
Peru prosecutors seek to bar president from leaving country: source
Peruvian prosecutors asked a judge late on Wednesday to bar outgoing President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski from leaving the country, hours after he resigned in the face of near-certain impeachment, a judiciary source told Reuters.
Prosecutors want to ensure Kuczynski is in Peru while they investigate payments his consulting firm received from Brazilian builder Odebrecht while he held senior government posts more than a decade ago, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Trump set for China tariff announcement on Thursday, trade war fears grow
Donald Trump will announce tariffs on Chinese imports on Thursday, a White House official said, in a move aimed at curbing theft of U.S. technology and likely to trigger retaliation from Beijing and stoke fears of a global trade war.
There was no indication of the size and scope of the tariffs, which U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Wednesday would target China’s high-technology sector and could also include restrictions on Chinese investments in the United States. Other sectors like apparel could also be hit.
Bloomberg
Mueller Investigated Sessions for Perjury on Russia Statements
Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI investigated Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year for misleading lawmakers about his contacts with Russians before eventually closing that part of the case, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
The investigation, which examined statements Sessions made last year during his confirmation process to become attorney general, was authorized by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive matter. Sessions fired McCabe on March 16 for a lack of candor and misleading Justice Department officials in a separate matter.
Iranian Charged in Sanctions Case as U.S. Steps Up Crackdown
An Iranian businessman faces U.S. charges of evading economic sanctions on Iran by moving $115 million from Venezuela through the U.S., signifying that prosecutors are intensifying a crackdown on illicit attempts to transfer money through the American financial system.
Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, who Reuters said is chairman of Malta-based Pilatus Bank, was arrested and charged on Monday. Sadr, whose family controls the Iranian conglomerate Stratus Group, illegally moved the money through the U.S. as part of a $476 million deal to build 7,000 housing units in Venezuela, U.S. prosecutors said.
The Sydney Morning Herald
NSW government's power plan reveals huge renewable energy resources
The Berejiklian government has identified three priority renewable energy zones in NSW that potentially have seven times the capacity of the state's coal-fired power plants.
In a submission to the Australian Energy Markets Operation, the government said the zones, in New England, the central-west and the south-west of NSW "could unlock 77,000 megawatts of new generation capacity".
Chicago Sun Times
Ex-top cop Garry McCarthy officially jumps into race against Mayor Rahm Emanuel
Former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy has formally entered the 2019 race against the mayor who fired him, with a promise to reverse a mass exodus from Chicago triggered by violent crime.
“Unfortunately, Chicago city government has lost our trust, because of failed policies and the endless politics of bluster and bullying,” McCarthy says in a three-minute campaign video released Wednesday night. “I’m running for mayor to change that.”
In the ad, McCarthy slams his ex-boss, calling it “so painful to see that under this mayor, we’re awash in higher taxes, corruption, school closings and violent crime.
Radio Times
Christopher Eccleston says he “lost faith and trust and belief” in Doctor Who bosses while filming
The former Ninth Doctor claims that his relationship with showrunner Russell T Davies "broke down irreparably" during filming for the sci-fi series.
“My relationship with my three immediate superiors – the showrunner, the producer and co-producer – broke down irreparably during the first block of filming and it never recovered,” Eccleston says in the latest issue of Radio Times.
“They lost trust in me, and I lost faith and trust and belief in them,” he continues.
The Daily Beast
Stephen Colbert: Stormy Daniels Affair Won’t Damage ‘Pussy-Grabber’ Trump
As the country prepares for Stormy Daniels’ big sit-down with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes this Sunday, Stephen Colbert is giving his fellow CBS-ers some extra promotion with a new segment called “Stormy Watch.” […]
“Previously on ‘Stormy Watch,’ Ms. Daniels alleged she had an affair with Donald Trump and that she was paid $130,000 to sign a non-disclosure agreement just days before the election,” Colbert told viewers. “Imagine how damaging an affair with a porn star would have been to his image as a family-values pussy-grabber.”
Samantha Bee Goes Off on Hope Hicks: ‘You Helped Burn Down Democracy, Bitch!’
It’s been exactly three long weeks since Hope Hicks announced she was bailing on Donald Trump’s White House. But Samantha Bee is not ready to let her be forgotten in the dustbin of history. […]
“At times like this, when the government is falling apart and the Saturday Night Massacre has turned into an eleven-week bender, it’s easy to lose track of important stories, even when they really, really matter,” Bee said. “Well, not tonight. I cannot let another week go by without saying, ‘Fuck you, Hope Hicks!’”