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Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will end her term this weekend and begin work as a distinguished fellow at the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution, reports CNBC.
Why it matters: Yellen spent 17 years in the Federal Reserve System and four as chairman, before Jerome Powell was confirmed as her successor last month. She will join former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and several other Fed alumni in her new position at Brookings.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
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White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows confirmed in court on Tuesday that President Trump's tweets authorizing the disclosure of documents related to the Russia investigation and Hillary Clinton's emails "were not self-executing declassification orders," after a federal judge demanded that Trump be asked about his intentions.
Why it matters: BuzzFeed News reporter Jason Leopold cited the tweets in an emergency motion seeking to gain access to special counsel Robert Mueller's unredacted report as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. This is the first time Trump himself has indicated, according to Meadows, that his tweets are not official directives.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
The Chinese government is threatening to detain foreign citizens unless their home governments do what Beijing demands. In some cases, China has already made good on those threats.
The big picture: This marks a potential evolution of China's "wolf warrior diplomacy" to outright rogue state behavior, putting it in the company of countries like North Korea and Iran, which have also engaged in hostage diplomacy.