Attention to the Unseen

The New York Times reports: Less than two hours after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis went to the White House on Thursday to hand a resignation letter to President Trump, the president stood in the Oval Office and dictated a glowing tweet announcing that Mr. Mattis was retiring “with distinction” at the end of February. But Mr. Trump had not read the letter. As became apparent to the president only after days of news coverage, a senior administration official said, Mr….

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Susan Rice writes: [T]wo factors combined to ensure the collapse of the decision-making apparatus. First, it appears that the national security adviser, John Bolton, rarely convenes his cabinet colleagues, known as the principals committee, to review the toughest issues. Instead, key players are cut out, as reportedly the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was from the final, fateful meeting on Syria. Mr. Bolton has not named a replacement deputy national security adviser, leaving vacant a crucial position whose…

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Politico reports: [Former Boeing executive, Patrick] Shanahan, who has been the Pentagon’s No. 2 for 18 months [and will become acting defense secretary on Jan 1], is little known outside the halls of the national security community — and even there his views are not well understood. A mechanical engineer by training with scant policy background, the public record of his positions is slim compared to Mattis, a retired four-star Marine general. “Imagine if we drew a Venn diagram of…

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The Independent reports: Mass re-education camps used to hold Uighur and other Muslim minorities in China are being run like “wartime concentration camps”, Amnesty has said. Up to one million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other minorities have been arbitrarily detained in internment camps in the far-west Xinjiang region, according to human rights groups and a UN panel. China maintains that it is detaining people guilty of minor crimes, and has sent them to “vocational centres” and that inmates are “grateful” to…

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The New York Times reports: When President Trump grows frustrated with advisers during meetings, which is not an uncommon occurrence, he sits back in his chair, crosses his arms and scowls. Often he erupts. “Freaking idiots!” he calls his aides. Except he uses a more pungent word than “freaking.” For two years, Mr. Trump has waged war against his own government, convinced that people around him are fools. Angry that they resist his wishes, uninterested in the details of their…

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The Guardian reports: Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised by remain supporters throughout Westminster after he stressed that Brexit would go ahead even if Labour won a snap general election in the new year. In an interview with the Guardian on Friday, Corbyn said the party would campaign for Brexit if there was a second referendum on the UK’s membership of the bloc, but that he would seek a refashioned exit deal with the European Union. He also renewed his criticism…

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