Axios

Billionaire Chinese lawmakers continue to get richer under President Xi Jinping. China's Parliament — the largest governing body in the world with around 3,000 delegates — and its advisory body together are worth $500 billion, according to the NYT. The 100 richest businessmen of the group also saw their net worth rise 64% since Xi took office in 2013.

Why it matters: It shows that "political power and money have remained tightly intertwined in China: this is a structural issue that Xi cannot solve," as Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a professor of Chinese politics at Hong Kong Baptist University, told NYT.

Irony: Xi has promised to fight the corruption of wealth and politics, as well as income inequality.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions held a press conference to announce his recusal from any ongoing investigation of the Trump campaign's contact with Russian officials. His announcement came after reports last night that he met twice with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. but denied any such contacts during his Senate confirmation hearings.

• To kick it off: "I never had meetings with Russian intermediaries or Russian operatives about the Trump campaign."
• But: "Since I had involvement with the campaign, I should not be involved with any campaign investigation...Therefore, I have recused myself from the matters that deal with the Trump campaign." Sessions was already considering recusal and had an initial meeting with staff on Monday and a follow-up planned for today before the reports hit last night.
• His September 8 meeting with the Russian ambassador: "I don't remember a lot of it." He added, "We talked a little bit about terrorism, as I recall, and the subject of the Ukraine came up." He said the conversation got "testy."
• Like high school but more political: "Most of these ambassadors are gossipy...but I don't recall any type of political campaign discussions."

Donald Trump Jr was probably paid at least $50,000 for an October appearance before a Kremlin-linked think tank, the Wall St Journal reports.

The event was at the Paris Ritz and hosted by the Center for Political and Foreign Affairs. It came less than one month before Trump Sr was elected president. Fabien Baussart, the think tank's president, nominated Vladimir Putin for a Nobel Peace Prize last year. His wife Randa Kassis said she told Trump Jr at the meeting, "without Russia, we can't have any solution in Syria."

Kassis heads a Moscow-backed Syrian opposition group, and Baussart is a staunch defender of Russia's role in Syria.

The Trump Organization did not deny that Trump Jr was paid to appear, but said he had "been participating in business-related speaking engagements for over a decade."

In a video clip that just aired on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Attorney General Jeff Sessions again denied meeting with "any Russians at any time to discuss any political campaign," adding that the allegations are "unbelievable" and "false." He also stated that "whenever it's appropriate I will recuse myself, no doubt about that."

Jeff Sessions tells NBC News: “I've said that whenever it's appropriate I will recuse myself, there's no doubt about that." via @Morning_Joe pic.twitter.com/TfeR939Zdr— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 2, 2017

In a few hours, Snap will finally be a publicly-traded company, and its founder will have accomplished a difficult feat: turn a silly app for teens to send disappearing photos into a veritable social media business. But the company's main foothold is in North America and Europe, while in Asia it faces stiff competition from Korean app Snow.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions met twice last year with the Russian ambassador to the US, the Washington Post reports, though he later said he had no "contact with the Russians". The Sessions response:

I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.

Sessions was asked during a confirmation hearing earlier this year about contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. He said at the time that he did not have "communications with the Russians," and claimed he wasn't aware of any contacts.

The then-senator met once with Sergey Kislyak in his capacity as a member of the Armed Services Committee, and once after an event. He is already under pressure to step aside and appoint a special prosecutor for ongoing Russia-related investigations. For context, Michael Flynn resigned after misleading the White House about conversations with Kislyak.