Music: Ariana and Amrina — ‘Pareek’
What Mueller knows about the DNC hack — and Trump doesn’t
Thomas Rid writes: In Helsinki on Monday, President Donald Trump stood feet away from Russian President Vladimir Putin and fielded a simple question from an AP reporter: Whose account of the 2016 election does he believe—that of Putin, who claims Russia did not interfere in the U.S. presidential election, or every major U.S. intelligence agency, which have unanimously concluded that it did? In response, the president brought up a well-rehearsed conspiracy theory implying that after being hacked, the Democratic National…
White House equivocation endangers American diplomacy
The Daily Beast reports: Current and former American diplomats are expressing disgust and horror over the White House’s willingness to entertain permitting Russian officials to question a prominent former U.S. ambassador. One serving diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was “at a fucking loss” over comments that can be expected to chill American diplomacy in hostile or authoritarian countries – a comment echoed by former State Department officials as well. “It’s beyond disgraceful. It’s fundamentally ignorant with…
State Department silent on MH17 anniversary after Trump conferred with Putin
Foreign Policy reports: Every year since a Russian missile downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew, the U.S. State Department has issued a statement to mark the anniversary. But on the anniversary this year—a day after U.S. President Donald Trump met in Helsinki with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin—the State Department was conspicuously silent about it. Officials there prepared a draft statement that was sharply critical of Russia for its…
Montenegro is not going to start World War III
Robin Wright writes: In the dozen years since it broke away from Serbia, Montenegro, a scenic little country on the Adriatic with fewer than seven hundred thousand people, has probably never had so much attention. On Tuesday, the Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson asked President Trump why, if Montenegro were attacked, his son should have to go defend it. Montenegro is the newest member of NATO; it just marked one year of membership. “I’ve asked the same question,” the President…
China built an army of influence agents in the U.S.
The Daily Beast reports: In May, a classified Australian government report revealed that the Chinese Communist Party had spent the last decade attempting to influence every level of that nation’s government and politics. “Unlike Russia, which seems to be as much for a good time rather than a long time, the Chinese are strategic, patient, and they set down foundations of organizations and very consistent narratives over a long period of time,” said the author of the report in March….
Music: Qasamir — ‘Ha Gulo’
What Putin has on Trump
Julia Ioffe writes: It’s hard to know what to say after a day—a week—like the one we’ve just experienced. On one hand, none of it should’ve come as a surprise. The full frontal assault on our closest allies in the EU and NATO, like the assault on the free press and the pointless flattery of Vladimir Putin, stretch back two years to the 2016 campaign. Donald Trump has spent this past week doing exactly what he said he would do…
Trump is a sad, embarrassing wreck of a man
George Will writes: America’s child president had a play date with a KGB alumnus, who surely enjoyed providing day care. It was a useful, because illuminating, event: Now we shall see how many Republicans retain a capacity for embarrassment. Jeane Kirkpatrick, a Democrat closely associated with such Democratic national security stalwarts as former senator Henry Jackson and former senator and former vice president Hubert Humphrey, was President Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the United Nations. In her speech at the 1984…
Trump fist-bumped Turkish leader Erdogan, said he ‘does things the right way’
Erdogan’s security staff beating up peaceful protesters in Washington D.C., May 17, 2017: CBS News reports: In the days before his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki Monday, President Donald Trump upset relations with America’s allies during a visit to the United Kingdom and a contentious meeting with NATO leaders in Brussels. In addition to calling the European Union a “foe” of the U.S. and criticizing British Prime Minister Theresa May for her handling of Brexit, Mr….
Fueled by climate change, wildfires erode air quality gains
E&E News reports: Fourteen years ago, University of Washington researcher Daniel Jaffe installed an air pollution monitor on a mountainside outside Eugene, Ore. His intention was to measure pollution levels, with a particular focus on tracking emissions from China that drift into the United States in the spring. But in recent years, the monitor has unexpectedly produced a second and more urgent data set: tracking fine particle pollution from wildfires in the western United States. “We spend more of our…
Music: Yussef Kamaal — ‘Calligraphy’
Trump has subordinated himself to Putin
Margaret Sullivan writes: It was press conference as national nightmare, summed up succinctly by the BBC on its home page minutes later with this headline: “Trump Sides With Russia Against FBI.” And though Monday’s joint Trump-Putin post-summit appearance in Helsinki was a news conference — with some admirably tough questions from two experienced wire-service reporters — it also was a moment in which no media interpretation was really necessary. Everything was right out there in the open. Believe your eyes…
What Robert Mueller knows
Garrett M Graff writes: When the history books are written, Rod Rosenstein might just be the most interesting figure of the Russia investigation—the beleaguered deputy attorney general whose memo in his first days on the job was used to justify the firing of James Comey. After that he quickly appointed Robert Mueller as the special counsel and spent the following year supervising his investigation while under immense pressure from President Trump and congressional wolves seeking to undermine his credibility, even…
Trump and Putin are clearly in cahoots — over propping up fossil fuels
Eric Holthaus writes: Whether Russia meddled in the U.S. presidential election in 2016 is not up for serious debate — numerous intelligence agencies, both foreign and domestic, concluded it did. During a joint press conference with President Donald Trump in Helsinki on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin went a long way toward answering why. “I did [want Trump to win] because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal,” Putin said. That statement was widely covered, but I’m…
Mariia Butina, who sought ‘back channel’ meeting for Trump and Putin, is charged as Russian agent
The New York Times reports: A Russian woman who tried to broker a secret meeting between Donald J. Trump and the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, during the 2016 presidential campaign was charged Monday and accused of working with Americans to carry out a secret Russian effort to influence American politics. At the behest of a senior Russian government official, the woman, Mariia Butina, made connections through the National Rifle Association, religious organizations and the National Prayer Breakfast to try…