The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has subpoenaed 8 years of President Trump's "personal and corporate tax returns" as part of its investigation into hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election, the New York Times reports.
The big picture: A federal investigation into the payments resulted in Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleading guilty to campaign finance violations, and it "effectively concluded" in July with no further charges. Vance's office opened a new investigation last month into whether the Trump Organization falsely listed its reimbursement of Cohen for the $130,000 payment to Daniels as a legal expense, which would be illegal under New York law.
Saturday's attacks in Saudi Arabia have resulted in the largest oil market disruption in history, and they raise questions of war, energy supply and the fate of the largest-ever IPO. Dan digs in with Axios' Ben Geman.
Analysts and traders are looking at the immediate supply effect of the Saudi attacks and what they portend for the long-term security of the world's largest crude oil exporter.
Why it matters: Prices had been middling for months thanks to the sluggish global economy, U.S. production growth and trade fights. But the attacks could keep prices in a higher band for a while, even though there's enough crude sloshing around to prevent shortfalls for now and the wider economic landscape remains bearish.
Thousands of environmental activists and politicians are descending on New York City in the coming days for rallies and a major summit. Almost certainly, they will use oil, natural gas and/or coal to get there.
The big picture: That's the classic hypocrisy charge — you're a hypocrite for advocating on climate change while using fossil fuels. Such arguments are shallow because virtually everyone depends on these fuels somehow. Yet the charges are increasing, so it's worth exploring the concrete steps people can actually take in a warming world.
Humberto strengthened into a hurricane as it moved east into the Atlantic Ocean Sunday night, and the National Hurricane Center warns Bermuda is set to be impacted with heavy rain from the Category 1 storm.
The latest: Humberto was moving at 3 mph 785 miles west of Bermuda at 11 p.m., with sustained winds of 75 mph. It lashed the Hurricane Dorian-devastated Bahamas with 70 mph winds as it scraped past, but the NHC said the nation escaped the bulk of the storm.
More than 2 weeks since Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas, the death toll remains at 50, but government data shows 1,300 people are still listed as missing, while much of the archipelago faced another tropical storm this weekend.
The latest: Bahamians escaped the bulk of storm Humberto, now a hurricane, as it passed offshore, but it still lashed the islands with sustained winds of 70 mph. The National Hurricane Center said. And Humberto's outer rain bands are forecast to dump 1–2 inches of additional rain with isolated storm total amounts of 6 inches.
President Trump said via Twitter Sunday that he has authorized release of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve "if needed" in response to the attacks against Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure.
Why it matters: The statement signals high-level White House concern about the effect of the Saudi production outages on the global market.
The coal mining industry in the top coal-producing region of the U.S. is struggling despite President Trump's efforts to prop up the coal industry nationwide, according to AP.
Why it matters: Many coal producers in the Powder River Basin in northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana are filing for bankruptcy or consolidating as U.S. coal production has slid 30% since peaking in 2008 and small rural communities across the nation face economic uncertainty.
Crude oil prices are expected to surge when Asian markets reopen Sunday night (U.S. time) as traders respond to Saturday's attacks against major oil processing and production sites in Saudi Arabia.
Why it matters: The alleged drone strikes, which took large volumes of production offline, are stark evidence of security risks facing OPEC's largest producer and the world's largest crude oil exporter.
