"Twice a day since the beginning of the Trump administration, a special folder is prepared for the president. The first document is prepared around 9:30 a.m. and the follow-up, around 4:30 p.m. Former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and former Press Secretary Sean Spicer both wanted the privilege of delivering the 20-to-25-page packet to President Trump personally, White House sources say."
"These sensitive papers, described to VICE News by three current and former White House officials, don’t contain top-secret intelligence or updates on legislative initiatives. Instead, the folders are filled with screenshots of positive cable news chyrons (those lower-third headlines and crawls), admiring tweets, transcripts of fawning TV interviews, praise-filled news stories, and sometimes just pictures of Trump on TV looking powerful."
"Many economists and industry experts agree that the United States faces unfair competition and artificially low prices that have damaged the domestic steel industry. But they don’t agree that a tariff is the right approach for addressing the problem. They argue that tariffs could backfire, hurting American businesses and workers without doing much to revive the Rust Belt."
"In 1996, Bill Browder went to Russia to try to make a fortune. He made his money, but he also found himself in a fight with Russian oligarchs over money and power. And he lost. It cost him not just his companies, but the life of friend."
"His crusade to punish the people responsible led to Congress freezing the assets of dozens of powerful Russians. In retaliation, Russia banned Americans from adopting Russian kids. Which is why Natalia Veselnitskya scheduled a meeting with Donald Jr. to talk about "adoptions." Browder knows her; he calls her his "arch-enemy." Really, Browder says, she wanted to talk about unfreezing those Russian assets."
"Today on the show, we call up Bill Browder and have him walk us through his years in Russia. Once, he and Putin were allies. But before Browder knew it, border guards were dragging him out of a VIP lounge, and eventually out of Russia. Now, even in exile, he doesn't eat in the same restaurant twice."
"The story of Browder and his late friend helps explain what the Russian government—Vladimir Putin—wants from the President of the United States. And how far he'll go to get it."
"Donald J. Trump lashed out at a new target on Monday, blaming his bad poll numbers on the existence of the numerical system."
"In sometimes rambling remarks at an outdoor rally in Ohio, the Republican Presidential nominee called the numerical system “rigged” and unleashed a torrent of abuse on numbers themselves, calling them “disgusting” and “the lowest form of life.”
"He can't get Congress to send a health care bill for him to sign. His own family is causing public relations (and possibly legal) problems. He was something of an outsider at the recent G-20 meeting in Germany, emerging with no major deal and left behind as his international counterparts forged ahead with a climate change agreement the United States has now abandoned. Leaks – some of which are apparently coming from his own staff – reveal a White House foundering and struggling to get traction."
"President Donald Trump, made famous by being a dominant boss on reality TV, has lost control of the biggest enterprise he has taken on, the running of the federal government, analysts and experts say. And the one thing on which the Twitter-happy president has kept a firm grip – his mobile phone – has only gotten him in further trouble, with his tweets used against him in court decisions and by his political foes."
"In what is sure to ignite another firestorm of debate in polarized Washington, a longtime friend of President Trump said Monday night that Trump is "weighing" whether to dismiss Robert Mueller, the Justice Department special counsel investigating possible ties between the Russian government and the Trump campaign."
"Carnival is know as die fünfte Jahreszeit (the fifth season) in German. It is a time when the usual rules of polite society are thrown out the window.
In the major cities of the Rhine region the inhabitants become Narren (jesters) for a week, mocking the political establishment of the day with satirical floats which parade through the city centres.
The past twelve months have clearly provided plenty of ammunition to the west German satirists.
In Düsseldorf one of the central floats on Rosenmontag (Rose Monday) showed US President Donald Trump standing next to French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen, Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders and Adolf Hitler - all of them sporting carefully coiffed blond manes.
The four populist leaders of past and present held a banner reading “Blond is the new brown”.