President Donald Trump’s attorney Jay Sekulow recently told me that the investigation being led by Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed by the Justice Department, should focus on one question: whether there was “coördination between the Russian government and people on the Trump campaign.”Sekulow went on, “I want to be really specific. A real-estate deal would be outside the scope of legitimate inquiry.” If he senses “drift” in Mueller’s investigation, he said, he will warn the special counsel’s office that it is exceeding its mandate. The issue will first be raised “informally,” he noted. But if Mueller and his team persist, Sekulow said, he might lodge a formal objection with the Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, who has the power to dismiss Mueller and end the inquiry. President Trump has been more blunt, hinting to the Times that he might fire Mueller if the investigation looks too closely at his business dealings.
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Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Trump, is looking at his past deals.
Illustration by Oliver Munday; photograph by Skynesher / Getty (hands)
On a late-spring evening in Boston, just as the sun was beginning to set, a group of mathematicians lingered over the remains of the dinner they had just shared. While some cleared plates from the table, others started transforming skewers and hunks of raw potato into wobbly geodesic forms. Justin Solomon, an assistant professor at M.I.T., lunged forward to keep his structure from collapsing. “That’s five years of Pixar right there,” he joked. (Solomon worked at the animation studio before moving to academia.) He and his collaborators were unwinding after a long day making preparations for a new program at Tufts University—a summer school at which mathematicians, along with data analysts, legal scholars, schoolteachers, and political scientists, will learn to use their expertise to combat gerrymandering.
The school, which began on Monday, is the brainchild of a young Tufts professor named Moon Duchin, who specializes in geometry. It has drawn participants from France, Israel, Japan, Singapore, and forty U.S. states. Some of Duchin’s students plan to train as expert witnesses, or to run for office. One mathematician enrolled out of a Christian sense of justice; another cited the day-to-day frustrations of living in a severely gerrymandered Florida district. Yet another applicant wrote, “Until very recently, I thought doing anything about this was a hopeless cause.” At the dinner, Duchin acknowledged that she was “kind of devastated by this election,” but both she and her colleagues were careful to point out that their venture is strictly nonpartisan. It was inspired by a simple question: What if there are well-researched areas of math that could simplify, or at least systematize, the fraught process of redistricting?
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Gerrymandering has been a thorn in the side of the U.S. political system since before the very first Congress was elected.
President Trump’s relationship with the American business community suffered a major setback on Wednesday as the president was forced to shut down his major business advisory councils after corporate leaders repudiated his comments on the violence in Charlottesville this weekend.
Trump announced the disbanding of the two councils — the Strategy & Policy Forum and the Manufacturing Council, which hosted many of the top corporate leaders in America — amid a growing uproar by chief executives furious over Trump’s decision to equate the actions of white supremacists and protesters in remarks he made at Tuesday at Trump Tower.
But those groups had already decided to dissolve on their own earlier in the day, a person familiar with the process said. JP Morgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon, a member of the Strategy & Policy Forum, told employees in a note on Wednesday that his group decided to disband following Trump’s news conference on Tuesday, in which he appeared to show sympathy for some of the people who marched alongside the neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville.
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President Trump, with senior adviser Jared Kushner, left, and Merck chief executive Kenneth Frazier, right, meets with manufacturing chief executives at the White House in February. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
Those who loved Heather Heyer, along with strangers who have already elevated her into a symbol of defiance in the face of hate, gathered Wedneday to remember the woman who was killed in the racist melee here as a born defender of justice who who died for showing up.
“They tried to kill my child to shut her up, but guess what, you just magnified her,” said Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, sparking a cheering ovation from a packed auditorium in downtown Charlottesvill. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va) were among those in the crowd.
As the political and emotional shockwaves from the weekend violence continued to roil the nation outside, Heyer’s family and friends filled the front rows, rising by turns to greive and to galvanize. Her mother beseeched those who mourn for Heyer to take up her committment to social justice
“I have aged 10 years in the last week,” Bro said as she struggled up the stairs to the stage when it was her turn to speak. But from the podium, she called forcefully to those who knew her daughter–and those around the world coming to know her now–to fight “as Heather would do.”
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Susan Bro, the mother of Heather Heyer, who was killed on Aug. 12 in Charlottesville while protesting white nationalists urged others to fight injustice and speak up. (The Washington
Republicans are mixed in their response after President Donald Trump’s unpredictable Tuesday news conference, during which he defended white supremacists and blamed “both sides” for violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
But some Republicans spoke out against Trump, using his name directly to emphasize that they don’t agree with what he said in Trump Tower.
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During his news conference, Trump blamed “both sides” in the protests and equated the white supremacists on one side with the counter-protesters on the other side.
Some Republicans, to avoid more conflict, denounced racism after Trump’s news conference — and some indirectly referred to his statements when they called him out.
One of the reasons a total solar eclipse is possible is because of an amazing cosmic coincidence: the Sun is four hundred times larger than the Moon but is also four hundred times farther away. This makes them seem like they are relatively the same size from our perspective here on Earth.
Two female artists are embarking on a rather, um, unusual mission: to collect 1,001 butts. Yes, butts.
Montreal-based artists Emilie Mercier and Frédérique Marseille are photographing women’s backsides in an attempt to celebrate the beauty of the female derrière.
Through the “1001 Fesses” — or 1001 Bums — photographic project, they hope to address the insecurities they feel about their bottoms, and explore the way other women feel about their own bodies.
Premiums for the most popular health insurance plans would shoot up 20 percent next year, and federal budget deficits would increase by $194 billion in the coming decade if President Trump carries out his threat to end certain subsidies paid to insurance companies for the benefit of low-income people, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.
The subsidies reimburse insurers for reducing deductibles, copayments, and other out-of-pocket costs that low-income people pay when they visit doctors, fill prescriptions, or receive care in hospitals.
Even before efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act collapsed in the Senate last month, Trump began threatening to cut off the subsidies, called cost-sharing reductions. He said the health care law would “implode” and Democrats would have no choice but to negotiate a replacement plan. Trump described his strategy as, “Let Obamacare implode, then deal.”
In the world, human beings are facing various problems. People who are full of greed, anger, and ignorance are seen to be fighting with each other in words and deeds. As the fighting continues, various problems such as civil wars, wars of aggression, and wars of aggression are occurring. As world peace is being destroyed, humans are facing unbearable problems. Innocent children and women are not getting the rights they deserve and deserve. I can't think of one thing every time. What is it? The United Nations. If we look at the responsibilities and duties of the United Nations, I think it is not suitable for solving the problems that are happening in the world today. In fact, the United Nations and the World Security Council, such an organization must rule the world, must be able to give orders, and must have various ways to obey orders. There must be no organization that can influence more than that organization. There should be experts from each country. They can even dominate the superpowers like the US, China, and Britain. Only then will global peace be achieved quickly. Now, if a country with power develops more militarily, economically, or socially than its own country, then powerful countries will jealously seek out enemies and wage war. Or they will attack with fighter jets. In this, innocent people are losing their lives. No one understands the value of a life. You should think about how to achieve global peace by controlling these. If the US continues to be the permanent president of the UN, world peace will never be achieved. If you think carefully, no one sees that they are working for the common good, but for their own benefit, for the benefit of their own country. The permanent president of the UN and the Security Council has rejected this, As a young Rohingya, I have come to realize that only by electing the president and secretary from among the countries in the world through a secret ballot system and governing the world fairly can we achieve global peace. The United Nations and the Security Council are organizations in which any country must govern, give orders, and make them obey their orders. For example, only when a defendant is tried in court can we hold the leaders of the countries in check and control them, can we achieve global peace smoothly. Otherwise, it will not be easy for powerful countries to use various excuses to end this war every year, every year, for the benefit of themselves and their countries. No country's leaders pay any attention to the words of the United Nations and the Security Council. If we look at it in practice, look at the Rohingya issue. Myanmar is a small country. Even that country has been under siege for 8 years. What action can be taken? Why is the UN and the Security Council Powerless? Without such Power, how can the organization bring about global peace? Everyone should think about it. Whether there is a veto or a strong one, all countries in the world can only achieve global peace if they are subject to the UN and the Security Council. Seek peace in the quiet embrace of nature. Peace is an indispensable need of the human race. It is not as if one person can kill another person, and it is as if one country can attack another country, but instead of trying to build peace, we must try to destroy the peace now, and the world is getting hotter and is on the verge of collapse. I especially appeal to all the world experts to urgently try to bring about peace in all parts of the world. Mr, Noor Muhamed Arkhan Rohingya Youth Myanmar
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.
Blue shoes dancing
Fascinating Facts About Your Cat
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The Amazing Cosmic Coincidence
Beautiful Bottoms
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