Steve Bannon just testified for the government at Roger Stone’s trial

As the trial of Roger Stone stretched into its fourth day on Friday, prosecutors called their biggest name yet to the witness stand: Steve Bannon.

The former White House chief strategist and Trump campaign CEO stressed that he was appearing under a subpoena, rather than voluntarily. “I have been compelled to testify,” he said.

But he proceeded to explain that, in 2016, Stone suggested to him several times “that he [Stone] had a relationship with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.”

All this relates to the government investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Part of that interference, special counsel Robert …

Fiona Hill’s testimony gives her account of a disturbing White House meeting on Ukraine

Former National Security Council official Fiona Hill gave an account of a tense White House meeting that’s key to the impeachment inquiry, in a deposition transcript released Friday.

At this July 10 sit-down between Trump administration officials and Ukrainian officials, Hill said, Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland “blurted out” that there was an agreement: Ukraine’s president would get a meeting with President Donald Trump, if Ukraine agreed to launch certain investigations.

Hill testified that National Security Adviser John Bolton reacted very badly to this — first ending the meeting, and later telling her, in rather colorful terms, to …

Michael Bloomberg has changed his mind on running for president yet again

It looks like Michael Bloomberg might be running for president after all.

The 77-year-old billionaire philanthropist, media magnate, and former New York City mayor hasn’t officially announced that he plans to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for the White House. In March, he said he would sit the race out. But he appears to have changed his mind in the face of the rise of progressives Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and the perceived weakness of the more centrist Joe Biden.

On Thursday, the New York Times first reported that Bloomberg is flirting with the idea of a presidential …

Survey: the epidemic of teen vaping continues to surge, unabated

Vaping was introduced into the US market as a tool for helping adult smokers quit. But that’s not who has been buying e-cigarettes in mass.

The latest survey data on adolescent e-cigarette use, published this week in JAMA, shows another year-on-year surge in nicotine e-cigarette use among teens.

According to the survey findings, 28 percent of high school students reported using nicotine e-cigarettes in the past 30 days this year — up from just over 20 percent in 2018. Among middle schoolers, that rate rose from 5 percent in 2018 to 11 percent in 2019. The figures are “particularly …

Vox Sentences: 37 dead in Burkina Faso mining attack

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A Trump rule loses in court — for now

  • A federal judge blocked a new rule by the Trump administration that would allow medical providers to deny patients procedures if it violated the provider’s religious or moral convictions. [Wall Street Journal / Stephanie Armour]
  • Citing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the New York district judge ruled that the “conscience provision”