Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has alerted the White House that his team will probably seek to interview six top current and former advisers to President Trump who were witnesses to several episodes relevant to the investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the request.
Mueller’s interest in the aides, including trusted adviser Hope Hicks, former press secretary Sean Spicer and former chief of staff Reince Priebus, reflects how the probe that has dogged Trump’s presidency is starting to penetrate a closer circle of aides around the president.
Each of the six advisers was privy to important internal discussions that have drawn the interest of Mueller’s investigators, according to people familiar with the probe, including his decision in May to fire FBI Director James B. Comey. Also of interest is the White House’s initial inaction after warnings about then-national security adviser Michael Flynn’s December discussions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States.
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Special counsel Robert Mueller departs after a closed-door meeting in June with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee about Russian meddling in the election. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
After spending much of this week telling his listeners that Hurricane Irma was fake news, Rush Limbaugh his fled his home base in Palm Beach, Florida, in anticipation of landfall.
On Thursday, Limbaugh announced he would not “be able” to host his nationally syndicated radio show on Friday due to “the security nature of things,” adding that he was heading to “parts unknown.”
Montgomery Gentry’s biggest hit is “Something to Be Proud Of” — which topped the country music charts in 2005. They also had hits with “If You Ever Stop Loving Me” and “My Town.”
The group was on tour, and they were scheduled to perform a concert Friday night at Flying W Airport and Resort.
It’s unclear what caused the crash. Investigators are on the scene. The news was reported on the duo’s Twitter account.
So Equifax was hacked. Like, badly. But how to tell if you, personally, are affected by the massive data breach? There’s a website for that — as long as you don’t mind forking over even more information to Equifax.
The credit reporting agency announced Thursday that private identifying information on potentially 143 million US citizens was accessed by “criminals,” and that the information in question could include names, social security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and even possibly driver’s license numbers.
Like we said, it’s bad.
But don’t worry! Equifax is here to save the day! And, like we said, if you trust them with your personal information (which, maybe not a great idea?), the process of determining if you’ll now need to keep an eye out for identity theft should be a breeze.
The most powerful earthquake to hit Mexico in 100 years struck off the nation’s Pacific Coast late Thursday, rattling millions of residents in Mexico City with its violent tremors, killing at least 32 people and leveling some areas in the southern part of the country closest to where the quake occurred.
About 50 million people across Mexico felt the earthquake, which had a magnitude of 8.2, the government said. In the capital, the force of the temblor sent residents of the megacity fleeing into the streets at midnight, shaken by the alarms blaring over loudspeakers and a full minute of tremors. Windows broke, walls collapsed, and the city seemed to convulse in terrifying waves; the quake even rocked the city’s landmark Angel of Independence monument.
Hurricane Irma is an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane and will continue to bring life-threatening wind, storm surge, and rainfall hazards to the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas through Saturday. It’s tracking toward South Florida, where a hurricane warning was implemented Thursday night.
Irma devastated the island of Barbuda Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. A Barbuda weather station reported a 155-mph wind gust just before it failed. Reports suggest the island may have suffered a nearly-total loss.
On Wednesday, the storm battered Puerto Rico as the eye tracked to the north of San Juan. Intense wind gusts were reported, including 111 mph on Culebra Island and 131 mph on Buck Island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
From clot-busting drugs to bypass surgery, cardiologists have many options for treating the 700,000-plus Americans who suffer a heart attack each year. But treatment options remain limited for the 5.7 million or so Americans who suffer from heart failure, an often debilitating condition in which damage to the heart (often resulting from a heart attack) compromises its ability to pump blood.
“Severe heart damage can pretty much incapacitate people,” says Dr. Timothy Henry, director of cardiology at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “You can’t climb a flight of stairs, you’re fatigued all the time, and you’re at risk of sudden cardiac arrest.”
Medication is available to treat heart failure, but it’s no panacea. And some heart failure patients undergo heart transplantation, but it remains an iffy proposition even 50 years after the first human heart was transplanted in 1967.
IN BRIEF: In the pursuit of renewable and cleaner energy sources, nuclear power remains one of the viable options.To make it an even safer choice, a Dutch nuclear research firm began experiments with a kind of nuclear fission that uses thorium salts.
Erasing Nuclear Fears
Until such time that scientists figure out how to stabilize nuclear fusion, the most powerful energy source available remains its relatively less powerful cousin, fission. While there are already a number of countries using nuclear fission reactor plants, there’s still a lingering shadow of fear over the technology, thanks to several cases of nuclear meltdowns in the past.
President Donald Trump surprised the leaders of his own party in Congress on Wednesday when he backed a deal pushed by Democrats to attach hurricane relief money to a shorter-term bump in the debt ceiling as well as keeping the government open, cutting off his own Treasury secretary to strike a deal.
The decision was one of the most fascinating and mysterious moves he’s made with Congress during eight months in office.
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The remarkable turn of events left Republican congressional leaders, in control of both chambers of the legislative branch, “shell-shocked” and “visibly annoyed,” and showcased how a President who also authored “The Art of the Deal” actually cuts one.
After each North Korean provocation, a soothing mantra echoes through the halls of government and think tanks in the United States.
China, it is frequently said, could solve this seemingly unsolvable problem, finally reining in North Korea, if Beijing were just properly motivated.
But this oft-repeated line contains three assumptions, none of which has held up well in recent years.
It assumes that outside pressure could persuade North Korea to curtail or abandon its weapons programs. That China has the means to bring about such pressure. And that Beijing will do so once it is properly cajoled or coerced.
Each assumption has been tested repeatedly in recent years and, time and again, has collapsed. Yet three consecutive presidents — George W. Bush, Barack Obama and now Donald J. Trump — have invested their hopes and their strategies in China coming to the rescue.
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President Xi Jinping of China last month. China’s reticence toward North Korea is often portrayed as a matter of will. Analysts say it is much more complicated than that.Credit Pool photo by Andy Wong
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Special counsel Robert Mueller departs after a closed-door meeting in June with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee about Russian meddling in the election. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Image: Christopher Mineses/mashable
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Irma’s track
‘Beating Heart’ Patch
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James' World 2 