The death of Otto Warmbier last year amid allegations he was brutally tortured by the North Korean government became a catalyst for President Trump's June summit with dictator Kim Jong-un, but the circumstances of his death may not be so clear, Doug Bock Clark writes for GQ.
The big picture: No one knows exactly what happened to Warmbier during his 17 months in captivity — only that he was returned to his family with severe brain damage attributed, without evidence, to botulism. But after six months of reporting and conversations with dozens of North Korea experts, Clark found that the chances Warmbier's condition was caused by physical torture may be equally unlikely.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo assured the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that the U.S. does not recognize Crimea as a part of Russia during his testimony centered on President Trump's recent meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Why it matters: Trump's personal position on this issue has been shaky at best in recent months. At the G7 summit, Trump reportedly said he considered Crimea to be Russian because people in Crimea speak Russian — and he's also said that he'll "have to see"if U.S. policy on the issue would change.
Unforced by coup or war, one developed country after another has chosen an authoritarian style of democracy over the last two years, an all-but unforeseen shift that has left more mainstream leaders scrambling to understand it and turn back time.
The big picture: Economics ultimately underpins the turmoil, leading scholars tell Axios — a financial slide that has eroded the association of democracy with rising living standards and upward mobility, all while populists and partisan media have stoked resentment and promised better.
Immigration officials required more information from high-skilled H-1B visa applicants last year, and denied 22% in the last quarter — up 41% from the previous quarter, according to a new study by the National Foundation for American Policy.
The big picture: The number of denials and "requests for evidence" (RFE) began to climb following President Trump's "Buy American, Hire American" executive order signed in April of last year. While employers of H-1B workers often talk anecdotally about how much harder it's been to get their applications approved, this new data highlights a potential impact of the administration's crackdown.
President Trump criticized his former lawyer Michael Cohen in a Wednesday tweet for recording their 2016 conversation about making a payment to a former Playboy model with whom Trump allegedly had an extramarital affair.
"What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things? I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad!"
The big picture: Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, told Axios' Mike Allen that Cohen is sending a message with the tape's release: "I am no longer the previous Michael Cohen that you knew — taking a bullet for Donald Trump, saying anything to defend him, being a good soldier. ... That is over."
President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani told Fox News' Laura Ingraham that the audio of Michael Cohen and Trump speaking about a payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal, which was leaked to CNN on Tuesday, gives "no indication of any crime being committed."
Why it matters: The recording suggests that Trump had knowledge of the purchase for the rights of McDougal's story, who claims she had an affair with Trump years ago. Giuliani, however, stood by his claim that Trump was unaware of the transaction.
The audio recording of the conversation between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump, released to CNN last night by Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis, offers unparalleled insight into Trump and Cohen's relationship, both then and now.
Why it matters: We’re now beginning to learn why Trump was so agitated, according to aides, when investigators raided Cohen’s office.
Lanny Davis — a lawyer for Michael Cohen, President Trump's former lawyer and fixer — tells me that, following last night's release of a secret Trump-Cohen recording, we'll soon learn more "about what Michael Cohen saw and heard."
In an astounding spectacle, Davis released to CNN a tape of Cohen talking with Trump, who was apparently being taped without his knowledge, about buying the rights to a Playboy model's story about an alleged affair.
Advisers to President Trump say Joe Biden is the Democrat he most fears running against, and that Pennsylvania is the state he worries most about flipping against him.
Trump’s calculation is based partly on how weak he sees other Democratic possibilities, including Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, and partly on who’s capable of appealing to his base of working class whites.
President Trump likes China's immigration policies a lot better than Germany's. That was clear in a post-Putin meeting interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News, where Trump gave a nod to China's isolationist immigration policies and slammed Germany, which has welcomed hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.
Why it matters: Yet again, Trump is praising authoritarian governments over U.S. allies to justify his own actions — in this case, restrictive policies toward both legal and illegal immigrants.
White House counsel Donald McGahn on Tuesday met privately with top Senate Republicans over the scope of how much of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s long record should be publicly released, reports the Washington Post.
Why it matters: The meeting comes on the heels of a substantial release of Kavanaugh’s records from his service in both the judicial and executive branches, which has been a major source of tension in the process of getting to a confirmation hearing. Democrats and liberal-leaning groups are aggressively demanding for the release of thousands of records dating back to Kavanaugh’s time in the George W. Bush administration to ensure he is properly vetted.
CNN on Tuesday obtained the audio recording of a conversation Michael Cohen had secretly with his longtime client Donald Trump, in which the two could be heard discussing making a payment to a Playboy model who allegedly had an extramarital affair with Trump about a decade ago.
The conversation: Trump could be heard asking Cohen, "What financing?," CNN reports.
Cohen: "We'll have to pay."
Trump: "Pay with cash." The audio is muddled and it's unclear whether he suggested his attorney should pay with cash or not pay, CNN notes.
