Intelligence Agencies' failures: Incompetence? Treason? Worse?

You tell me.

'There's something not right here': British spies warned the US about 'extensive' contact between Trump team and Russia

Natasha Bertrand

Business InsiderApril 13, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hold in the East Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 12, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Britain's Government Communications Headquarters became aware of suspicious "interactions" between associates of Donald Trump and suspected or known Russian operatives in late 2015, The Guardian reported on Thursday.

The Guardian's report — which said other intelligence agencies in Germany, Estonia, and Poland also picked up communications between Trump's associates and Russian agents — is consistent with earlier revelations about what spurred the US intelligence community to launch its investigation last summer into Trump's ties to Russia.

The European agencies shared the intelligence with their American counterparts between late 2015 and mid-2016, The Guardian reported. But the FBI and the CIA "were slow to appreciate the extensive nature of contacts between Trump's team and Moscow ahead of the US election," the report said.

"It looks like the [US] agencies were asleep," a UK intelligence source told The Guardian. The European agencies "were saying: 'There are contacts going on between people close to Mr. Trump and people we believe are Russian intelligence agents. You should be wary of this.' The message was: 'Watch out. There's something not right here.'"

The FBI did not open its investigation into Russia's interference in the US election — and the Trump campaign's possible complicity — until July 2016, FBI Director James Comey told the House Intelligence Committee during a public hearing last month. That was more than six months after British intelligence officials were first alerted to the interactions between Trump's associates and known or suspected Russian operatives, according to The Guardian.

US officials were "very late to the game" when it came to examining those contacts, a source told the British newspaper.

The BBC's Paul Wood reported earlier this year that the investigation began in earnest in the spring of 2016 when an intelligence agency of one of the Baltic states passed former CIA Director John Brennan a recording that alleged money from the Kremlin had made its way into Trump's campaign coffers. 

Brennan reportedly established a counterintelligence task force, which included the FBI and the National Security Agency. That summer, Robert Hannigan, then the chief of the GCHQ, passed Brennan more material related to conversations Trump associates had with suspected or known Russian agents, according to The Guardian.

'It has become clear that you possess explosive information'

In August — more than eight months after British officials were alerted to the Trump-Russia contacts — Brennan briefed the US's top lawmakers on the material, which he said showed that Russia had interfered in the US election to help Trump win, The New York Times reported last week.

Whereas the CIA was fairly confident by late August that the Russians were working to boost Trump, the FBI did not publicly draw that conclusion until early December. Because the CIA deals exclusively with foreign intelligence, it did not have the authority to announce the evidence it apparently had of such collusion.

One of the lawmakers, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, wrote two letters to FBI Director James Comey between August and October urging him to go public with the information. 

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan participates in a session at the third annual Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington, U.S., September 8, 2016. REUTERS/Gary Cameron

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-agencies-were-asleep-were-155016516.html

Birth of the Biggest Lie

MARCH 23, 2017

Charles M. Blow

A few things are clear after the congressional testimony of James Comey, the F.B.I. director, this week:

First, Donald Trump owes Barack Obama and the American people an apology for his vituperative lie that Obama committed a felony by wiretapping Trump Tower. It was specious, libelous and reckless, regardless of the weak revelations of “incidental collection” that the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and Trump transition team member Devin Nunes outrageously made public, briefing the president without first briefing his fellow committee members. Nunes’s announcement was a bombshell with no bomb, just enough mud in the water to obscure the blood in the water for those too willfully blind to discern the difference.

Second, Donald Trump will never apologize. Trump’s strategy for dealing with being caught in a lie is often to tell a bigger lie. He seems constitutionally incapable of registering what others would: shame, embarrassment, contrition. Something is broken in the man — definitely morally and possibly psychologically.

Third, and to me this is the biggest, Comey confirmed that the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to the Russians who tampered with our election is not “fake news” manufactured by Democrats stewing over a bitter loss but a legitimate investigation that has been underway for months and has no end in sight.

Individuals who were associated with the president of the United States’ winning campaign are under criminal investigation. That is an extraordinary sentence and one that no American can allow to be swallowed up by other news or dismissed by ideologues.

Depending on the outcome of this investigation, we could be facing a constitutional crisis. Oddly, it is likely that the reason Trump is even in the Oval Office is Comey’s original, extraordinarily inappropriate and unprecedented action. The Trump machinery then used that action to scare Americans about Clinton, in one of the most astonishing acts of deflection and hypocrisy in American history.

The timeline of how the lie of Clinton’s constitutional crisis was born and grew is full of Machiavellian-level misdirections.

On Friday, Oct. 28, a little over a week before Election Day, Comey sent his now infamous letter to Congress saying that “the F.B.I. has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent” to the Clinton email server investigation and that “the F.B.I. should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”

Soon after the media reported the letter, Trump said at a crowded rally in New Hampshire:

“Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before. We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office. I have great respect for the fact that the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made.”

James Comey testifying on Capitol Hill on Monday.

ERIC THAYER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

That day, Fox News tweeted a quote from the Trump campaign manager Kellyanne “Alternative Facts” Conway, with an image of her appearing on “The O’Reilly Factor” and text that read: “@KellyannePolls on HRC: “If you’re under your 2nd FBI investigation in the same year then you do have a … corruption & an ethics problem.”

About an hour later, Conway retweeted the Fox News tweet, adding, “Most honest people I know are not under FBI investigation, let alone two.”

That night, as reported by The Des Moines Register, Trump said at a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, rally:

“The investigation is the biggest political scandal since Watergate, and it’s everybody’s hope that justice at last can be delivered.” He went on, “The F.B.I. would never have reopened this case at this time unless it were a most egregious criminal offense.”

Two days later, on Oct. 30, Doug Schoen, a pollster for former President Bill Clinton, said on Fox News that having a president under criminal investigation would pose a constitutional crisis, and the next day he wrote about that it in The Hill, saying:

“I am now convinced that we will be facing the very real possibility of a constitutional crisis with many dimensions and deleterious consequences should Secretary Clinton win the election.”

He continued:

“In the best case scenario, there will be at the very least a criminal investigation of President-elect Clinton. And there will be a criminal investigation of Huma Abedin, which is apparently ongoing. Furthermore, there will be potential investigations into the actions of the Justice Department and most of all the F.B.I. and its director, James Comey.

“After the past eight years wherein America has become progressively more and more divided and a campaign season that has magnified these divisions, I fear for that we will not be able to withstand this kind of continued scandal.”

The Monday that Schoen’s “constitutional crisis” column appeared in The Hill, Trump quoted it at a rally in Michigan. Trump added:

“She would be under protracted criminal investigation and probably a criminal trial, I would say. So we’d have a criminal trial of a sitting president.”

Then that night the Fox News host and Trump flunky Sean Hannity repeated the warning on his own show:

“Think about the magnitude of all of this for a second. Hillary Clinton could be sworn into office while still being under investigation from the F.B.I., which would then put this country into a major constitutional crisis.”

Hannity continued:

“Now Clinton says Donald Trump, oh, he’s not fit to serve in the Oval Office. But she, and she alone, has created a situation that could do severe damage to this country and the office of the presidency and prevent this country from solving problems.”

Three days later, on Nov. 3, the Trump campaign released a television ad called “Unfit” that said in part: “Hillary cannot lead a nation while crippled by a criminal investigation.”

On Sunday, Nov. 6, just two days before the election, Comey sent another letter to Congress saying that based on the bureau’s review, “we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton.” In other words, oops, false alarm, nothing there.

But the damage was done. The Trump campaign had already honed its “constitutional crisis, unfit for office” message, and it had sunk in with many Americans. What those Americans didn’t know — what we learned from Comey’s testimony this week — was that although there was no reason to continue investigating Clinton about her emails, the Trump campaign had been under investigation since July about possible contacts and collusion with Russia in its efforts to influence our election.

Now the very thing that Team Trump and its Fox News media arm warned about, Trump himself has delivered: A compromised presidency and a possible constitutional crisis.

As The New York Times reported after Comey’s testimony:

“Mr. Comey placed a criminal investigation at the doorstep of the White House and said officers would pursue it ‘no matter how long that takes.’ ”

The lie these people promoted about Clinton and shielded about Trump are two of the biggest lies ever told in this country in service of electoral advantage.

No act of this presidency — good or bad, beneficial or detrimental — can ever be considered without first contextualizing that this presidency itself was conceived in deception and is being incubated under an extraordinary lie.

The Trump presidency is a corruption that flows from corruption. It is damned by its own damned lies.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/opinion/birth-of-the-biggest-lie.html?mc=aud_dev&mcid=keywee&mccr=dommob&kwp_0=367954&kwp_4=1372897&kwp_1=605798&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2F

Remove Trump!

With the hindsight of HISTORY, the HEROES stand out - those who spoke TRUTH TO POWER, those who said or wrote accurately to describe the self-evident. 

Shaun King

Before Donald Trump was ever elected, we knew he was a truly gross man — a liar and a cheater, a misogynist and a bigot, willing to play on the worst tendencies of this country for applause or votes. It was one thing when we knew of him that way as a reality TV star. It was another when we saw him double down on his character flaws as a presidential candidate, but here we are, with him as the President of the United States — and his character is not only failing him, it's failing our nation.

I've been obsessed with politics for about 30 years now. Born in 1979, I missed Richard Nixon by a few years, but over these past three decades, I've never seen what I saw Monday.

I watched the directors of the FBI and NSA testify under oath that Donald Trump repeatedly lied when he said on at least four occasions on Twitter that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower. Mind you, in those tweets, he called President Obama "sick" and compared what Obama had done to him to "McCarthyism."

Piece by piece, James Comey and Admiral Michael Rogers tore apart every single aspect of Trump's false claims. First they said that President Obama did not have the power to order such wiretaps. Then they said that they had investigated Trump's claims and did not find a shred of evidence that any such wiretap ever existed. Pushed on the conspiracy theory that possibly the British government was asked to do it by Obama, Admiral Rogers, who again was appointed by Trump to replace disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, stated the claim simply was not true and that the assertion from the White House that it was true was damaging to our international relationships.

To make sure his statement on the matter was abundantly clear, FBI Director Comey said he had the full permission of the Justice Department to speak on their behalf that they also found absolutely no evidence that Donald Trump was wiretapped by Obama, or anyone else for that matter. Mind you — the Justice Department is overseen by Trump's bestie, Jeff Sessions, and even Sessions could not bring himself to join in on the lie.

It was a bombshell. In front of the entire world, under oath, two leaders of our intelligence community testified that our current President repeatedly told flagrant lies on our previous President.

I already knew Donald Trump was a liar. Most of the country believes that, but to see these two men testify to it was about as damning of a political moment as I've ever seen in my 30 years of following politics. Dan Rather, now 85 years old, said of Monday's developments: "If you are a praying person, today is a day to pray for the future of your country. I have seen a lot in my decades in the press, but I have never seen a day like this. This is a stress test for our democratic institutions and one can only hope that the system of checks and balances we hold so dear, can indeed hold."

I agree with Dan. We've reached a dangerous precipice where we can definitively say that the President of the United States is a gross, unethical liar who cannot and should not be trusted.

To make matters worse, during the hearing, using the government's official Twitter account for the President, Trump tweeted that Democrats made up the Russia story because they lost the election. In painstaking detail, Directors Comey and Rogers testified how that simply was not true and how Russia, including Vladimir Putin himself, hated Hillary Clinton, loved Donald Trump, and wanted to do anything they could to impact the election. I have to say this again, but these are the foremost experts on the matter. They did not speak or testify with hesitancy, but said emphatically, over and over again, that Trump was lying when he said Democrats made this whole thing up.

That's a problem.

Then, in something that could not have happened in previous generations, Congressman Jim Himes asked Comey and Rogers about the validity of a tweet that Donald Trump had just written during the hearing in which he claimed the two men testified that Russia had no impact on the election. Again, in another moment of outrageous embarrassment, both men were forced to testify that Donald Trump was wrong — and that they had not testified to that point. In other words, Trump lied about his lies, and put his own Directors of the FBI and NSA in a position where they had to call him out on it.

I had the thought during their testimony that it could really get no worse for Donald Trump, but it did. Just hours later, when pushed on the fact that the Directors of the FBI and NSA had just testified that Donald Trump was not wiretapped by President Obama, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was asked if Donald Trump would apologize.

I don't know why I was surprised by his answer, but again, imagining it, and seeing it in real time are very different. Without hesitation, Spicer stated that Donald Trump was not going to apologize to President Obama or anyone else about his claims of wiretapping. In fact, he was still holding on to the belief that it was true.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a crisis. It means that Donald Trump is not in touch with reality. The Republican Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, testified yesterday that Trump was not wiretapped. The heads of the FBI and NSA testified to this. Yet, Trump still believes it.

This is not normal. What it shows is that facts do not matter to Donald Trump. Testimony from experts on the issue don't matter. The conclusions from the leaders of his own party don't matter. In the face of a tidal wave of truth, Donald Trump will stare right back at the tsunami and say it's not actually there.

He accused President Obama of a crime, on Twitter, in front of the whole world, had it soundly refuted, but cares not, won't admit his error or apologize, and wants to continue sending our nation down an expensive path of investigating his false claims. It's preposterous. Literally, my own young children, not my teenagers, but my elementary school children, saw this mess unfold yesterday and assumed he would then apologize since he had been caught in such a lie. Nah.

I think he is mentally unfit to hold the Office of President. As a result, he should be immediately removed from office.

I'm not sure how anyone, after Monday's events, could say otherwise. He is out of touch with reality. Numerous political figures have labeled him a pathological liar. He lives in a space where evidence and testimony and science and facts matter less than what's in his mind. And it's undermining the Office of President.

Thankfully, Section 4 of 25th Amendment actually addresses this. It states when the President is unable to faithfully perform the duties of his office, his Vice President and cabinet and congress can intervene.

How does anyone rationalize what Donald Trump is saying and doing? Either he is a pathological liar, which means he is absolutely unable to perform the duties of his office, or he is so mentally out of touch with reality that he does not know the difference between the truth and a lie when he sees it, which also means he should not be President of the United States.

We're at the point where his own surrogates are telling people that what he says and what he means or feels are not the same — that his literal words and figurative words don't line up. What else can they say?

The situation crossed a dangerous line Monday.

And to put more lipstick on the pig — Trump, in a raucous rally in Louisville, Ky., Monday night, never acknowledging any of the lies he told, instead found time and mental space to rail about Colin Kaepernick, the 29-year-old NFL quarterback. In his remarks, which his audience loved, Trump bragged about the media reports that NFL teams were refusing to sign Kaepernick because they were afraid Trump would tweet about them.

Again, on the very day where his FBI Director and NSA Director called him out for his dishonesty, Trump was more interested in Colin Kaepernick not getting a chance to play in the league. What the hell is going on? What are we talking about here?

That man should have been so contrite and apologetic, hat in hand, but instead he's focused on that?

It's disgusting. I don't see how any of us trust another word that comes out of his mouth. He should be removed from office. As his approval ratings plummet, and he begins to drag down the entire Republican Party, and indeed the entire government and country with him, maybe the people around him will actually have the guts to use Section 4 of the 25th Amendment and remove him from office. With every day he remains in office, national respect for that office declines.

Sadly, I don't think we've hit rock bottom. Trump and his team have already proven that they will burn it all down before they lead with integrity of any kind.

http://www.nydailynews.com/…/king-remove-trump-office-hit-r…

Robert Reich

America is in a crisis of governance. There is no adult in charge.

Instead, we have as president an unhinged narcissistic child who tweets absurd lies and holds rallies to prop up his fragile ego, whose conflicts of financial interest are ubiquitous, and whose presidency is under a “gray cloud” of suspicion (according to the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee) for colluding with Russian agents to obtain office in the 2016 election.

He’s advised by his daughter, his son-in-law, and an oddball who once ran a white supremacist fake-news outlet.

His cabinet is an assortment of billionaires, CEOs, veterans of Wall Street, and ideologues, none of whom has any idea about how to govern and most of whom don’t believe in the laws their departments are in charge of implementing anyway.

He has downgraded or eviscerated groups responsible for giving presidents professional advice on foreign policy, foreign intelligence, economics, science, and domestic policy. He gets most of what he learns from television.

Meanwhile, Congress is in the hands of Republicans who for years have only said “no,” who have become expert at stopping whatever a president wants to do but don’t have a clue how to initiate policy, who have never passed a budget into law, and, more generally, don’t much like government and have not shared responsibility for governing the nation.

As a result of all this, the most powerful nation in the world, with the largest economy in the world, is rudderless and leaderless.

Where we need thoughtful resolve we have thoughtless name-calling. Where we need democratic deliberation we have authoritarian rants and rallies.

The only way out of this crisis of governance is for all of us to take charge. You are needed. Now.

What do you think?

Robert Reich

 

There was an FBI wiretap involving Russians at Trump Tower. But it wasn’t put there at the behest of Barack Obama and the target wasn’t the Trump campaign of 2016.

For two years ending in 2013, the FBI had a court-approved warrant to eavesdrop on a sophisticated Russian organized crime money laundering network that operated out of the 63rd floor of Trump Tower – just 3 floors below Trump’s residence. “Everything was moving in and out of there,” said former FBI official Rich Frankel. Trump Tower was their “base of operations.”

The FBI investigation led to a federal grand jury indictment of more than 30 people, including one of the world’s most notorious Russian mafia bosses, Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, who remains a fugitive from American justice.

Five months after the April 2013 indictment -- and after Interpol issued a “red notice” for Tokhtakhounov – where did Tokhtakhounov turn up? The fugitive appeared near Donald Trump in the VIP section of the Moscow Miss Universe pageant.

We need a bipartisan select committee of Congress and an independent special prosecutor to get to the bottom of this.

What do you think?

Russian mafia boss still at large after FBI 

wiretap at Trump Tower

There, indeed, was an FBI wiretap involving Russians at Trump Tower. 

But it was not placed at the behest of Barack Obama and the target was 

not the Trump campaign…

ABCNEWS.GO.COM

RSN: Republicans Are Likely to Use the 'Nuclear Option' to Confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court , Research for Drought-Resistant Crops Gets Boost From US

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Reader Supported News

GOT TO MOVE YOU SOMEHOW: We can't provide service to a readership of this size without a budget. From this group we get the highest demand and the least assistance. We have to move you. We have done it with readers for over a decade but not this group. Very unfortunate all ways round. Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News

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Frank Rich | No Sympathy for the Hillbilly 

Frank Rich, New York Magazine
Rich writes: "Democrats need to stop trying to feel everyone's pain, and hold on to their own anger."
READ MORE

He's Back - Comey Drops Bombshell on Trump
Morgan Chalfant, The Hill
Chalfant writes: "Comey, a pivotal character in the 2016 election who many Democrats say cost their party the White House, confirmed Monday that the FBI is investigating possible links between Russia and President Trump's campaign."
READ MORE

Jessica Valenti | Trump Did to Merkel What Men Do to Women All the Time
Jessica Valenti, Guardian UK
Valenti writes: "Men constantly ignore women - but most of the time no one notices it. Except, that is, when it happens on the world stage."
READ MORE

Republicans Are Likely to Use the 'Nuclear Option' to Confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court
Philip Rotner, Reader Supported News
Rotner writes: "While there are enough Republican votes in the Senate to confirm Gorsuch by a simple majority, Senate rules require a super-majority of 60 votes to end a filibuster."
READ MORE

US Bans Large Electronic Devices on Select Flights From 8 Muslim Countries
Greg Myre, NPR
Myre writes: "Airline passengers coming to the U.S. on direct flights from eight majority-Muslim nations must now place most electronic devices, including laptops, tablets and cameras, in checked baggage under stepped-up security measures, Trump administration officials said ... All are traditional U.S. allies and none is among the six majority-Muslim nations on President Trump's controversial executive order that seeks to temporarily suspend immigration."
READ MORE

How Much Is an Afghan Life Worth? That Depends
Idrees Ali, Reuters
Ali writes: "Nearly 16 years since invading Afghanistan, the United States has no standardized process for making compensation payments to the families of thousands of Afghan civilians killed or injured in U.S.-led military operations."
READ MORE

Research for Drought-Resistant Crops Gets Boost From US
Umberto Bacchi, Thomson Reuters Foundation
Bacchi writes: "Scientists' efforts to develop new crops able to resist climate change, droughts and other shocks have been boosted by the United States joining an international seeds treaty, a research group said on Tuesday."
READ MORE

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RSN: Trump Inaugural: "This American Carnage" Annotated

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
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FUNDRAISING IN THE NEW AGE OF DIRE: Our Readers Support our work today, as they have for 14 years. The big difference is the amount of work, time and stress it takes. 10, or even 5 years ago when we said it was time to pay the bills, the money came in - at the time that we requested it. If we needed a little more, we got it. The whole process took 5 days. Now we still get what we need but it takes 3 times as long, and "never" happens until the situation becomes absolutely dire. That's silly. You apparently value this organization and its mission. Stop waiting for someone else to step up with a contribution. With the greatest respect. / Marc Ash - Founder, Reader Supported News

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William Boardman | Trump Inaugural: "This American Carnage" Annotated

William Boardman, Reader Supported News
Boardman writes: "As advertised, Trump's inaugural featured a strong promise to put America first, without really articulating just what that means. The original America First movement in the late 1930s was dedicated to staying out of war with Nazi Germany."
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Laurence Tribe, Prominent Legal Experts Sue Trump
Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post
Rubin writes: "The New York Times reported Sunday evening on the first of likely many lawsuits, to be filed Monday morning, attacking President Trump's apparent violation of the emoluments clause."
READ MORE

14 Senate Democrats Fall in Line Behind Trump CIA Pick Who Left Door Open to Torture
Zaid Jilani and Alex Emmons, The Intercept
Excerpt: "Fourteen Senate Democrats joined all but one Senate Republican in confirming Rep. Mike Pompeo as the new CIA director on Monday evening, failing a crucial first test of whether Democrats would present a united front to defend human rights and civil liberties in the Trump era."
READ MORE

The Democrats who voted to confirm Pompeo were:

• Joe Donnelly of Indiana


• Dianne Feinstein of California


• Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire


• Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota


• Tim Kaine of Virginia


• Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota


• Joe Manchin of West Virginia


• Claire McCaskill of Missouri


• Jack Reed of Rhode Island


• Brian Schatz of Hawaii


• Chuck Schumer of New York


• Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire


• Mark Warner of Virginia


• Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island

Angus King, the independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats, also voted in favor of Pompeo’s confirmation.

Connecticut Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy did not vote.

Police Appear to Be Searching Through Inauguration Protesters' Emails
George Joseph, CityLab
Excerpt: "On Friday, January 20, thousands of protesters took to the streets of D.C. to disrupt Donald Trump's inauguration festivities. A small fraction of them damaged property and threw projectiles at police in riot gear, who deployed flash-bang grenades, tear gas, and pepper spray on large crowds throughout the day."
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Trump Plans to Keep Comey as FBI Director
Julia Edwards Ainsley and Doina Chiacu, Reuters
Excerpt: "President Donald Trump intends to keep FBI Director James Comey in his post, a person familiar with the decision said on Tuesday, amid reports that U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies are scrutinizing Trump associates over their ties to Russia."
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"Women Will Die Because of This": Planned Parenthood on Trump Signing Anti-Abortion Global Gag Rule
Dawn Laguens and Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "Just two days after millions of people poured into the streets of Washington, D.C., and cities around the world for the historic Women's March on Washington, President Trump has reinstated the controversial 'global gag rule,' which women's rights advocates fear will increase unsafe abortions around the world."
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Trump Signs Executive Actions to Advance Keystone, Dakota Access Pipelines
Andrew Restuccia and Josh Dawsey, Politico
Excerpt: "President Donald Trump signed executive actions on Tuesday to advance the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, reversing decisions made by the Obama administration and setting off a clash with Democrats and environmental activists who vehemently oppose the projects."
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