Here is a news article: JUPITER, Fla. - Golfer Tiger Woods was found asleep at the wheel, had to be awakened and was charged with driving under the influence early Monday morning in Jupiter, according to police. Woods said later in a written statement that prescribed medications contributed to the arrest.

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 According to a probable cause affidavit, Woods said he was coming home from California and he did not know where he was. He "had changed his story of where he was going and where he was coming from," a DUI probable cause affidavit noted. He also asked how far he was from his house, the affidavit stated.

 He was wearing his seat belt, his vehicle was running, the brake lights were on and the right blinker was flashing, according to the police report. Police also noted that both drivers' side tires were flat and there was minor damage to both rims and minor damage to the front driver's side bumper and rear bumper. Woods's attitude was described as cooperative and confused and his speech extremely slow and slurred.

 His breath test results were .000, the affidavit stated.

 Police asked Woods to take several standard road sobriety tests. He had trouble standing on one leg and putting his finger to his nose, the report stated.

 When asked to recite the alphabet and if he understood, Woods said, "Yes, recite entire national anthem backward," according to the affidavit.

 Police noted that after several times explaining the instructions, Woods completed the task correctly.

 Woods was driving a 2015 black Mercedes-Benz when he was taken into custody at 3 a.m. on Military Trail south of Indian Creek Parkway.

 Court documents say there were six witnesses to the arrest.

 He was also cited for improper parking. His ticket noted his car was stopped on the roadway in the right-hand lane and right shoulder.

 Palm Beach County Jail records indicate Woods, 41, a Jupiter Island resident, was booked at 7:18 a.m. He was released from custody on his own recognizance, meaning no bail money was necessary, at 10:50 a.m.

 A court date for the case has been set for July 5 at 8:30 a.m.

 Jack Nicklaus says he feels bad for Woods and called him a friend who needs "all our help."

 Nicklaus says he last saw Woods at a dinner for past champions at the Masters, and Woods said his back was hurting, according to the Associated Press.

 At a news conference Tuesday at the Memorial in Dublin, Ohio, Nicklaus said he was a fan of Woods and a friend of his. "I think that he's struggling. And I wish him well," Nicklaus said. "I hope he gets out of it and I hope he plays golf again. He needs a lot of support from a lot of people, and I'll be one of them," the AP reported.

 The 14-time major champion has not played since withdrawing from the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in February.

 Ongoing back problems have sidelined his career for much of the last three years.

 In April, he said in a post on his website that he underwent successful back surgery to alleviate ongoing pain in his back and leg.

 On Monday evening, Woods issued a statement about his arrest:

 “I understand the severity of what I did and I take full responsibility for my actions.

 I want the public to know that alcohol was not involved. What happened was an unexpected reaction to prescribed medications. I didn’t realize the mix of medications had affected me so strongly.

 I would like to apologize with all my heart to my family, friends and the fans. I expect more from myself too.

 I will do everything in my power to ensure this never happens again.

 I fully cooperated with law enforcement, and I would like to personally thank the representatives of the Jupiter Police Department and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office for their professionalism.”

 Location of arrest below:

 Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. ||||| Tiger Woods was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol on Monday morning, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

 Woods, a resident of Jupiter Island, Florida and was booked into jail at 7 a.m. Monday morning.

 Records show that Woods was released from custody at 10:50 a.m. under his own recognizance.

 Here's Tiger Woods' mugshot after his arrest on DUI charge pic.twitter.com/d6f8CpOIc5 — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 29, 2017

 Woods, once the No. 1 ranked golfer in the world and winner of 14 major titles, has not played in a competitive tournament since withdrawing from the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in February after the first round because of continuing issues with his back.

 The 41-year-old Woods had back surgery in April -- his fourth surgery on his back in the past three years. ||||| This image provided by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office on Monday, May 29, 2017, shows Tiger Woods. Police in Florida say Tiger Woods has been arrested for DUI. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s... (Associated Press)

 This image provided by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office on Monday, May 29, 2017, shows Tiger Woods. Police in Florida say Tiger Woods has been arrested for DUI. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s... (Associated Press)

 Tiger Woods was arrested early Monday on a DUI charge in Jupiter, Florida, and spent nearly four hours in a county jail before he was released.

 Woods, the 14-time major champion who ranks second with his 79 career victories on the PGA Tour, has not played for four months. He is out for the rest of the season while he recovers from his fourth back surgery.

 Woods was arrested on suspicion of DUI about 3 a.m. Monday in a suburban area and taken to the Palm Beach County jail, Jupiter Police spokeswoman Kristin Rightler said. He was arrested on Military Trail, south of Indian Creek Parkway.

 Jail records show that 41-year-old golf great was booked into Palm Beach County jail at 7:18 a.m. and released on his own recognizance at 10:50 a.m. The jail released a booking photo of Woods in a white T-shirt.

 Rightler said she did not have additional details about the circumstances leading to Woods' arrest, nor did she have any information about whether the arrest involved drugs or alcohol. She said an arrest report may be available Tuesday.

 His agent at Excel Sports, Mark Steinberg, did not immediately respond to a voicemail from The Associated Press. PGA Tour spokesman Ty Votaw said the tour would have no comment.

 Woods has not been seen at a golf tournament since he opened with a 77 at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, withdrawing the next day because of back spasms. He was in Los Angeles for the Genesis Open, run by his Tiger Woods Foundation, but did not come to the course because of his back.

 He was at the Masters, but only to attend the dinner for past champions.

 Woods, who had been No. 1 longer than any other golfer, has not been a factor since his last victory in August 2013 as he battled through back surgeries from a week before the 2014 Masters until his most recent operation to fuse disks in his lower back a month ago.

 In an update Friday on his website, Woods said the fusion surgery provided instant relief and he hasn't "felt this good in years."

 It was the first time Woods has run into trouble off the golf course since he plowed his SUV into a tree and a fire hydrant outside his Windermere, Florida, home in the early morning after Thanksgiving in 2009, which led to revelations that he had multiple extramarital affairs.

 A police report then showed that a Florida trooper who suspected Woods was driving under the influence sought a subpoena for the golfer's blood test results from the hospital, but prosecutors rejected the petition for insufficient information.

 A witness, who wasn't identified in the report, told the trooper he had been drinking alcohol earlier. The same witness also said Woods had been prescribed two drugs, the sleep aid Ambien and the painkiller Vicodin. The report did not say who the witness was but added it was the same person who pulled Woods from the vehicle after the accident. Woods' wife has told police that she used a golf club to smash the back windows of the Cadillac Escalade to help her husband out.

 He eventually was cited for careless driving and fined $164.

 Woods and wife Elin Nordegren divorced in 2010. He later had a relationship with Olympic ski champion Lindsey Vonn from 2013 that lasted two years.

 ___

 Associated Press writer Jennifer Kay in Miami Beach, Florida, contributed to this report. |||||
A summary of this is?

– It's not the first time Tiger Woods has made headlines for dubious reasons over a holiday: The golfer was arrested on suspicion of DUI around 3am Monday in Jupiter, Florida, reports WPTV, which notes that's where Woods resides. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office records indicate the 41-year-old was booked shortly after 7am and released at 10:50am under his own recognizance. A police spokesperson said she had no more details about the circumstances leading to the arrest or whether drugs or alcohol were involved, but that an arrest report may be available Tuesday, the AP reports. Sports Illustrated reports the former No. 1 player in the world underwent back surgery once again in April, and hasn't hit the links competitively since February, when he pulled out of a Dubai tournament due to back problems.


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20. Zack Snyder

 Whenever a studio ecutive needs a reboot of something and his sole creative direction is "Make it grittier!" Snyder is the dude they call. He'll totally bro up your Superman by sucking all the joy out of every frame and adding muscles. Big, ripply, 300-style muscles. Oh, did you want Superman to be a shining light of morality in a harsh and cruel world? Screw that candy-ass shit. Superbro is gonna crush some buildings and give zero fucks about collateral damage. Grittiness: unlocked.

 _Zack Snyder's signature recipe: Take one happy-go-lucky superhero, blast him with a fire hose of muck, then order him to brood or he gets the Kryptonite. _ ||||| Time once again for the list no one wants to be on: GQ's third annual collection of people who've overstayed their turns in the spotlight and used their fame for not a good goddamn thing. The hardest part for us was keeping it to twenty-five. So this year, a bonus wrinkle: an additional mini-list of sorry souls who have been so un-influential for so long that we're retiring their jerseys forever. |||||

– Dennis Rodman certainly thinks he's influential, but GQ disagrees. The basketball star and self-styled North Korea ambassador is the No. 1 entry on the magazine's annual list of the 25 Least Influential People. Rodman "was the first prominent American celebrity invited inside the nation-sized prison that is North Korea, and he did literally the least interesting thing possible with it," writes Drew Magary. The rest of the top (bottom?) 10: Paula Deen: She's proved herself to be exactly like what you probably always thought she was like. Anthony Weiner: All that public humiliation, and he didn't even have any actual, real-life sex. Justin Bieber: He's now officially too old to be peeing in buckets and making light of Anne Frank. Pope Benedict: The new pope is just way better, and nobody misses this guy. Miley Cyrus: She "spent the entire year foam-finger-blasting herself, licking sledgehammers, and basically trying every inane strategy she could think of to rile up America's few remaining pearl clutchers." Aaron Hernandez: Uh, star athletes who came from tough backgrounds are supposed to act like thugs, not actually be thugs. Prince George: The royal baby got a lot of attention, but when you look at him, he's pretty much just a normal baby. Angela Corey: The prosecutor in the George Zimmerman case failed us all. The Smith family: As in Will, Jada, and the kids. "In just a few years, Will Smith has gone from one of America's most beloved stars to one of its most despicable." Click for the complete list.


The family of Augustus “Gus” Lee, the University of Richmond football player and Paul VI Catholic High School graduate who died early Tuesday morning, will donate his brain to the Veterans Administration-Boston University-Concussion Legacy Foundation Brain Bank, a repository of more than 650 donations established to study traumatic brain injuries and the neurodegenerative illness chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

 Lee was found dead in his snow-covered car just off the Richmond campus at 1:35 a.m., on Dec. 11, according to police. The Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reported the cause of death was suicide by asphyxiation. He was 20 years old.

 “I just wonder if something happened,” his mother, Phyllis Lee, said in a phone interview, referencing the potential of a brain injury caused by contact sports. “Because what he did was so out of character for him. It’s like, okay, wow, something has taken over this sweet kid that I never would imagine would do something like this. And that just led me to think if something had taken over him, maybe it’s his own brain that’s working against him.”

 The Concussion Legacy Foundation is a nonprofit that advocates for the study and treatment of brain trauma in athletes and other at-risk groups, including veterans. Since 2008, co-founder and chief executive Chris Nowinski has solicited donations of brains for researchers at Boston University to study. That research has contributed to a growing medical consensus that links football to CTE, a link the NFL acknowledged in 2016.

 “We sincerely appreciate the contribution to research and we hope the information we’re able to provide is helpful to [Lee’s family],” Nowinski said in a phone interview. “It’s certainly going to be helpful to the athlete community.”

 Lee’s mother said her son did not have a history of lingering health problems after concussions, but said he certainly suffered concussions when he was younger, including once in middle school when he was knocked unconscious during a lacrosse game. Doctors did not clear him to return to the field for several months after the injury.

 Lee was a redshirt freshman defensive back who mostly played on the Spiders' special teams units. He graduated in 2017 from Paul VI Catholic in Fairfax, where he was a member of the football, lacrosse and track teams.

 “He loved being a part of a team,” former Paul VI football coach Joe Sebastian said earlier this week. “He was very driven but in a good way. He wanted to be part of good things, positive things. You could see that when he was playing for Richmond.”

 Lee walked on to the Spiders football team after considering Delaware and Cornell, the coach said. He struggled to transition to the school of 4,000-some undergraduates from the small, tight-knit community at Paul VI, his mother said. And even though he played sports all his life — never missing lacrosse in spring and early summer, football in the later summer and fall, and swimming in the summer in the little time that was left over — the football team’s training regimen at Richmond took a toll.

 “I could tell his freshman year, he was a little fried,” she said. “Even though he played sports all his life, he was playing football five days a week. He was lifting weights. They have ‘freshman Fridays,’ where they have them waking up at 6 a.m., to work out. He was homesick. I could tell.”

 But by spring practice, Lee was seeing results on the field. He switched from wide receiver to defensive back and earned playing time on the kickoff and kick return teams. He had an interception in the spring intrasquad scrimmage and was named the game’s MVP.

 Richmond opened the season at Virginia, where Lee’s older brother is a student, and his whole family made the trip to Charlottesville for the game. The cameras for the stadium’s jumbotron zoomed in on Lee during the game’s opening kickoff.

 “You could see he was going to be a big-time player,” said Sebastian, who recorded each of Lee’s games and fast-forwarded through the tape to find the special teams plays on which Lee was on the field. “He was such an athlete.”

 Midway through the season, Lee came home to his parents' house in Vienna with bronchitis and when he went back to school was not the same, his mother said. The two began speaking on the phone every day, which was unusual for them. Lee told his mother some days he was not eating.

 When his mother asked if he was okay, he told her he was fine, just tired. Then days after Thanksgiving, he called home late at night in tears and said he was driving from campus to Vienna.

 “He said, ‘I’m so lonely. It’s awful here. I need to come home,’ ” his mother recalled.

 He saw a mental health professional the next day, who told Lee’s parents she wanted to set up a neurological screening over winter break. In the meantime, Lee went back to campus with final exams looming.

 “He said, ‘I’ve worked so hard, I’m so close. I just want to finish and then I’ll come home,’ ” his mother recalled. On their daily phone calls and in text messages they counted down the days until the end of the semester. His final two exams were scheduled for Dec. 10.

 But that day, Lee’s roommate had gone hours without seeing him. He called Lee’s parents, who alerted university police. After midnight Tuesday morning, police from the city of Richmond expanded the search off campus and located Lee in his car an hour later on the 300 block of College Road, a well-trafficked street just off campus.

 Augustus Lee is survived by his parents, Phyllis and Chris, and older siblings, Gillian and Jackson. A funeral is planned for Saturday at 2 p.m. at Church of the Holy Comforter in Vienna. ||||| Spider gates shown entering E. Claiborne Robins Stadium on the campus of the University of Richmond. (Photo: Eva Russo, AP)

 A University of Richmond football player died Tuesday.

 The Football Championship Subdivision school confirmed in a news release that Augustus "Gus" Lee, a redshirt freshman defensive back from Fairfax, Virginia, died but did not disclose the cause of death.

 The Virginia Department of Health's Central District Office of the Chief Medical Examiner did not immediately reply to an email from USA TODAY Sports early Wednesday morning.

 The Washington Post reported that Lee, who was just 20 years old, had walked on at Richmond after considering Cornell and Delaware. The 5-foot-11, 190-pound defensive back was the defensive most valuable player of the 2018 spring game and had appeared in all 11 of the Spiders' games this season, playing primarily on special teams.

 "Gus was a terrific young man and a great member of our Richmond family," Richmond coach Russ Huesman said in a statement. "His loss is a true tragedy to those who knew and loved him."

 The university's president, Ronald A. Crutcher, said in a statement that Lee was an undeclared pre-business major and referred to him as "a good friend."

 New York Giants quarterback Kyle Lauletta, who starred at Richmond before being picked in the fourth round of the NFL draft earlier this year, wrote on social media that he "couldn't have asked for a better friend and teammate" than Lee.

 "Your loving personality kind spirit will live on forever," Lauletta wrote on Twitter on Tuesday night. "Fly high. Rest in peace my brother."

 Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad. |||||

Write a summary.

– Phyllis Lee was shocked to learn her 20-year-old son, a University of Richmond football player, had killed himself by asphyxiation in his car just off campus, where his body was found early Tuesday, per USA Today. "I just wonder if something happened … because what he did was so out of character," she tells the Washington Post. "If something had taken over him, maybe it's his own brain that’s working against him." She'll now find out. The brain of Augustus "Gus" Lee of Fairfax, Va., will be donated to the concussion research program out of Boston University, which has linked football to degenerative brain disease CTE. "We hope the information we're able to provide is helpful to [Lee's family],” says Chris Nowinski of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, which is involved in the research. "It's certainly going to be helpful to the athlete community." Lee, the MVP of the team's 2018 spring game, had suffered concussions in the past, and was sidelined for months in middle school after he was knocked unconscious during a lacrosse game. But it was only after Lee joined the football team at Richmond that his mother noticed his behavior change. "He was a little fried. Even though he played sports all his life, he was playing football five days a week," she tells the Post. After Thanksgiving, the defensive back called his parents in tears to say he was headed home, complaining of loneliness. He saw a mental health professional, who planned to set up a neurological screening during winter break, and returned to school. His last two exams were Monday, the same day he was reported missing. (Brain trauma was found in another college footballer who died by suicide.)


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US troops, civilians killed in suicide attack in Syria

 Play Video ||||| DENVER -- Nearly 30 Air Force Academy cadets required medical care, with six of them hospitalized, after an annual tradition to mark the first snowfall of the season turned into an out-of-control melee, officials said Wednesday.

 An unauthorized ritual last week called "First Shirt/First Snow," in which freshman cadets try to throw their cadet sergeant into a snowbank, grew violent and resulted in injuries, the academy said in a statement.

 "A relatively small number of cadets chose to take part in this unsafe activity," Brig. Gen. Gregory Lengyel said in the statement. "This incident was unacceptable."

 The six cadets who required hospitalization after last Thursday's incident have all been released, and the 21 others were treated for "bruises and/or lacerations" at the academy's cadet clinic, the school said.

 Lengyel, who serves as the commandant of cadets, said school officials are investigating the incident. "Our Air Force expects better. I expect better, and I'm confident the cadets will learn and grow from this."

 An internal email about the incident obtained by the Air Force Times newspaper, reportedly written by Brig. Gen. Dana Born to school administrators, said the annual ritual "has turned into a brawl" between freshmen and upperclassmen.

 "This ritual has devolved to become increasingly violent, with significant numbers of cadets requiring medical care over the past two years," The Times cited the email as saying, adding that the latest injuries included concussions, an arm bite and cuts that required stitches.

 More news from Colorado on NBC affiliate 9News.com in Denver

 “Obviously, this has gotten out of hand and cannot be repeated,” Born wrote. “There is no way we can condone or defend this.”

 The Times said the internal memo indicated Lengyel might allow the tradition to continue if cadets can show it can be conducted with "good order and discipline and proper risk management."

 Located in Colorado Springs, 60 miles south of Denver, the academy has an enrollment of about 4,100 cadets, and graduates are commissioned second lieutenants in the U.S. Air Force.

 The reported incident is a fresh blow to the reputation of the Air Force, which has dealt with a number of scandals in recent years.

 More coverage of the US military on NBCNews.com

 In 2003, the academy was accused of failing to investigate numerous incidents of sexual assaults on the campus.

 In 2005, an Air Force panel concluded that officers and faculty members periodically used their positions to promote their Christian faith and failed to accommodate the religious needs of non-Christian cadets.

 The academy has also been hit with several cheating and drug-use incidents in recent years, according to the Colorado Springs Independent.

 Reuters contributed to this report.

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What is a shorter version of the above article?

– An Air Force ritual devolved into an all-out melee last week that left 30 cadets injured and six hospitalized—with concussions, cuts, and an arm bite, NBC News reports. It was all part of the unauthorized "First Shirt/First Snow" ritual, in which cadets toss a sergeant into a snow bank at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. Not too surprisingly, the rite has led to melees and injuries the past couple of years. "Obviously, this has gotten out of hand and cannot be repeated," wrote Brig. Gen. Dana Born to school administrators. Just how does the ritual turn into a massive melee? When "upperclassmen defending the first sergeant" begin brawling with "the four degrees trying to capture the first sergeant," wrote Born, according to the Air Force Times. But a new commander at the school says he may allow the sergeant-tossing to continue if cadets can do it nicely. "Our Air Force expects better," says Brig. Gen. Greg Lengyel. "I expect better, and I’m confident the cadets will learn and grow from this."


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– President Donald Trump has narrowed his list of prospective Supreme Court nominees to five finalists (although the list could change), and plans to announce his pick on July 9, reports Bloomberg. White House officials appear to be focusing on the following federal appeals court judges, all of whom are Republican appointees with conservative records: Amy Coney Barrett, Thomas Hardiman, Brett Kavanaugh, Raymond Kethledge, and Amul Thapar. Kavanaugh and Kethledge were both law clerks to retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. The president told reporters on Air Force One Friday that he may interview one or two picks this weekend at his resort in Bedminster, NJ, and that he doesn’t plan to ask them about Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion-rights decision, reports Politico. The FBI is currently conducting background checks.

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 President Donald Trump spent Saturday engaged in a deep dive into the backgrounds of the top prospects to fill an opening on the U.S. Supreme Court but hasn’t begun interviews with the finalists.

 Trump is at his Bedminster, New Jersey, private golf club. He’s been studying the rulings, judicial philosophies and temperaments of his short list, said an administration official familiar with the process.

 Trump, who’s spending the weekend with family, had “extensive” conversations by phone with White House Counsel Don McGahn to seek additional insights on some of the likely finalists, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the process.

 While the president told reporters a day earlier that it was possible he would interview one or two candidates at Bedminster over the weekend, the official said that as of Saturday evening no presidential interviews with candidates had taken place, and that such meetings weren’t expected on Sunday either. Trump returns to the White House Sunday evening.

 Trump said Friday he’d narrowed his search for a nominee to fill a Supreme Court vacancy to about five finalists, including two women, and will announce his pick on July 9.

 A person familiar with the process said Friday that White House officials were focused primarily on five federal appeals court judges -- Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Thomas Hardiman, Raymond Kethledge and Amul Thapar.

 “I like them all but I’ve got it down to about five,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. In response to a question about Barrett, he called her “an outstanding woman.”

 President Trump speaks aboard Air Force One on June 29 Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

 It isn’t clear what other woman might be on Trump’s short list. Trump said he may consider as many as seven candidates.

 Trump’s time frame could prove optimistic. The FBI is still conducting background checks, the person said. But the president is already moving to get the process on a fast track. He met with a group of swing-state senators from both parties at the White House on Thursday to discuss the nomination, and his aides also spoke with more than a dozen other senators.

 Trump said he’s not going to ask the candidates whether they’d vote to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion-rights ruling, a decades-long aspiration of the Republican Party.

 ‘Great Group’

 “It’s a great group of intellectual talent,” Trump said, adding that the candidates are “generally conservative.”

 The confirmation process promises to be a partisan brawl, but one where Republicans have most of the control over the clock. Trump aims to have a replacement for Kennedy confirmed in time to join the court for its new term in October, White House legislative affairs director Marc Short said Friday.

 Republicans have a 51-49 majority in the Senate, and second-ranking Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois said Thursday there is little Democrats can do to stop the nomination unless some Republicans defect. Virtually all Republican senators have supported Trump’s lower-court selections and most have spoken favorably about Trump’s list of candidates for the Supreme Court.

 Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said that no matter who is chosen, confirmation will rest on the decisions of two GOP senators: Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Both have expressed support in the past for Roe v. Wade, and last year they displayed a willingness to split with their party when both voted to defeat the GOP Obamacare repeal effort.

 Bipartisan Meeting

 On Thursday night, Trump met at the White House with Collins, Murkowski and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, along with swing state Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota.

 Hardiman and Thapar were among the group interviewed by Trump before he selected Neil Gorsuch for a vacancy last year. Kethledge was also under consideration for that opening, though he didn’t get an interview with Trump.

 Kavanaugh, 53, is a former Kennedy law clerk who serves on the federal appeals court in Washington and has been a source of controversy for two decades. He was a top deputy to independent counsel Ken Starr and drafted much of the report that led to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment.

 Kethledge, 51 and from Michigan, is also a former Kennedy clerk, known for pointed opinions. He won praise from conservatives for voting against the Internal Revenue Service in a case involving a Tea Party group that claimed it was singled out for mistreatment on its application for tax-exempt status.

 Taxi Driver

 Barrett, who’s in her mid-40s, is a Trump appointee who serves on a federal appeals court in Indiana. During her Senate hearing, Democrats questioned the role her Catholic faith would play on the bench. Barrett’s supporters accused Democrats of imposing a religious test.

 Thapar, 49, is also a Trump appointee. He was recommended for his current post by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a fellow Kentuckian. Thapar, whose parents immigrated from India, would be the first Asian-American justice. McConnell said Saturday he had touted Thapar, but acknowledged he had “no idea” who Trump would choose, Associated Press reported.

 Hardiman, who turns 53 on July 8, is a former cab driver who was the first in his family to graduate from college. He serves on a federal appeals court in Pennsylvania and has been a staunch supporter of gun rights.

 Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah isn’t among the leading candidates, the person familiar with the discussions said.

 — With assistance by Laura Litvan ||||| “I’m not going to ask them that question,” Trump said when asked whether he’d interview Supreme Court candidates about the 1973 abortion-rights ruling. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo Trump says he won’t ask Supreme Court candidates about Roe v. Wade

 President Donald Trump said on Friday that he wouldn’t ask Supreme Court candidates about Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion-rights decision, as he begins interviewing potential nominees this weekend before announcing his choice on July 9.

 “I’ve got it narrowed to about five,” including two women, Trump told reporters on Air Force One en route to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He said he would interview one or two candidates there over the weekend.

 Story Continued Below

 Choosing a female nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement on Thursday, could be partly a political calculation, given that the future court is expected to consider abortion-rights cases that have the potential to undo rights recognized in Roe v. Wade.

 “I’m not going to ask them that question,” Trump said when asked whether he’d interview candidates about the ruling. On the campaign trail, Trump promised to nominate only judges who oppose abortion rights.

 Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, whose votes will be critical to confirming any Trump nominee, favor abortion rights, and abortion-rights groups and their allies are organizing to fight any candidate selected from Trump’s list of 25 potential candidates. They’ve mounted a #ditchthelist campaign on Twitter and are targeting Democratic senators up for reelection in November.

 Trump’s public list of potential nominees includes six women. Four — 10th Circuit Judge Allison Eid, 6th Circuit Judge Joan Larsen, Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces Judge Margaret Ryan and 7th Circuit Judge Diane Sykes — were on lists released during the 2016 presidential campaign. Two — 7th Circuit Judge Amy Barrett and Georgia Supreme Court Justice Britt Grant — were added last November.

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– "This is supposed to last for eternity," says the operator of the so-called Doomsday Vault, which since 2008 has been tucked within a mountain on a Norwegian island 800 miles from the North Pole where the soil is always frozen—or is supposed to be. The Guardian reports the Global Seed Vault "has been breached," with meltwater pouring into its entrance. This though Reuters in 2015 reported that the location on the island of Spitsbergen was supposed to be so cold that in the event of power failure the nearly 1 million packets of crop seeds within the vault would be preserved for at least 200 years. The issue now is skyrocketing temperatures (roughly 45 degrees above normal in late 2016) that replaced light snow with rain and melting, and their effect on the permafrost that surrounds the vault. "It was not in our plans to think that the permafrost would not be there," explains Norwegian government rep Hege Njaa Aschim. Also not in the plans: watching the vault 24/7, as they are doing now. But now all the reasons not to panic: That water didn't make it to the vault, and new waterproofing work is underway. One of the vault's creators (who wasn't present during the incident) tells Popular Science "in my experience, there’s been water intrusion at the front of the tunnel every single year." He explains the protective mechanics of the path to the seeds: a 330-foot tunnel, two pumping stations, and a brief uphill slant before the vault, whose 0.4-degree Fahrenheit temperature would freeze any water that made it that far. (The vault saw its first withdrawal in 2015.)

Expand this summary.

Global Crop Diversity Trust via Flickr

 Update 5/22: Recently, media reports emerged of water leaking into the entryway of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a facility that stores backup seeds for other seed banks all over the world. The facility is designed to be a backup for the backups. In an e-mail to Popular Science, Hege Njaa Aschim—communications director of the Norwegian Government-led organization Statsbygg, confirmed that the leaks happened last fall, during a time of high temperatures and unusual rainfall in the Svalbard area. “This fall—October 2016—we had extreme weather in Svalbard with high temperatures and a lot of rain—very unusual. This caused water intrusion into the tunnel leading to the seed vault. The seeds and the vault was never at risk. This was no flooding, but more water than we like. So we are doing measures to improve and secure the entrance and tunnel,” Aschim said. Aschim added that this year, no water has leaked into the entryway. In October, the water made it about 15 meters into the 100 meter tunnel and then stopped, freezing solid. The volume of the water that leaked in is unknown. Even before the events of October 2016, Statsbygg had already planned to take measures to waterproof the tunnel, which had an established tendency to let water in during the spring melt. While the tunnel is overlain by soil and permafrost, subject to the vagaries of weather and climate changes, the seeds themselves are stored in a vault built into the rock of the mountain—about 110 meters from the entrance to the tunnel. Initially, the people working on the project thought that the permafrost near the tunnel entrance would re-form (or re-freeze) after construction of the tunnel disturbed the layer of frozen Earth. It did not. Our original post from Friday continues below.

 A failure at a fail-safe vault. The irony is delicious, but that’s not the whole story. On its website, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is described by Crop Trust—the nonprofit that runs it—as “a fail-safe seed storage facility, built to stand the test of time—and the challenge of natural or man-made disasters.” It holds backups of seeds from seed banks around the world, with the goal of preserving a legacy of crop diversity in the face of changing climate, natural disasters, and human conflicts. It’s operated for a little over nine years. Then, on Friday, news spread that water from melting permafrost had gushed into the tunnel and frozen, making the floor slick with ice but not impacting the seeds. It would seem the fail-safe had failed. Or had it? “Flooding is probably not quite the right word to use in this case,” says Cary Fowler, who helped create the seed vault. “In my experience, there’s been water intrusion at the front of the tunnel every single year.” Fowler wasn't at the seed vault this year when the flooding (or 'flooding') in question took place, but has extensive knowledge of the project and facilities. He explains that a 100 meter long tunnel leads into the heart of the mountain where the seed vault is stored, running at a slight downward slope. At the base of the slope are two pumping stations to remove any water that might get in. Then there's a slight uphill section before you reach the doors to the vault itself, where the seeds are kept at 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit or -18 Celsius. “The tunnel was never meant to be water tight at the front, because we didn’t think we would need that,” Fowler says. “What happens is, in the summer the permafrost melts, and some water comes in, and when it comes in, it freezes. It doesn’t typically go very far.” Permafrost is a frozen layer of Earth that's meant to be permanent, but it can be damaged if temperatures rise, or if humans dig into it and create more ways for heat to enter. In this case, the area has been going through a record heatwave, and the construction of the tunnel nine years ago dug into the permafrost and made it more vulnerable. The combination means that near the entrance to the tunnel—where the overlying soil is thinner—meltwater can indeed make its way through. That’s why the designers installed the pumps in the first place.

 The Svalbard Global Seed Vault Global Crop Diversity Trust via Flickr ||||| OSLO (Reuters) - Syria’s civil war has prompted the first withdrawal of seeds from a “doomsday” vault built in an Arctic mountainside to safeguard global food supplies, officials said on Monday.

 Television crews stand outside the Global Seed Vault before the opening ceremony in Longyearbyen February 26, 2008. REUTERS/Bob Strong

 The seeds, including samples of wheat, barley and grasses suited to dry regions, have been requested by researchers elsewhere in the Middle East to replace seeds in a gene bank near the Syrian city of Aleppo that has been damaged by the war.

 “Protecting the world’s biodiversity in this manner is precisely the purpose of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault,” said Brian Lainoff, a spokesman for the Crop Trust, which runs the underground storage on a Norwegian island 1,300 km (800 miles) from the North Pole.

 The vault, which opened on the Svalbard archipelago in 2008, is designed to protect crop seeds - such as beans, rice and wheat - against the worst cataclysms of nuclear war or disease.

 It has more than 860,000 samples, from almost all nations. Even if the power were to fail, the vault would stay frozen and sealed for at least 200 years.

 The Aleppo seed bank has kept partly functioning, including a cold storage, despite the conflict. But it was no longer able to maintain its role as a hub to grow seeds and distribute them to other nations, mainly in the Middle East.

 Grethe Evjen, an expert at the Norwegian Agriculture Ministry, said the seeds had been requested by the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA). ICARDA moved its headquarters to Beirut from Aleppo in 2012 because of the war.

 ICARDA wants almost 130 boxes out of 325 it had deposited in the vault, containing a total of 116,000 samples, she told Reuters. They will be sent once paperwork is completed, she said.

 It would be the first withdrawal from the vault, she said. Many seeds from the Aleppo collection have traits resistant to drought, which could help breed crops to withstand climate change in dry areas from Australia to Africa.

 Syria’s four-year civil war has killed an estimated 250,000 people and driven more than 11 million from their homes, with 7.6 million displaced within Syria. |||||


Summarize this article:

SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean cargo vessel is missing after losing contact in the South Atlantic about 1,500 miles offshore, South Korea’s foreign ministry said Sunday.

 22 crew members are unaccounted for, the foreign ministry confirmed.

 Two Filipino crew members floating in a life raft were rescued Saturday, but other lifeboats found in the area were empty, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

 On Friday a crew member sent a text message saying the 148,000-tonne ship was taking in water on the port side, Yonhap said.

 Stellar Daisy went missing 1,500 miles off Brazil's South Atlantic coast Smith, Saphora (206526372) / Google Maps

 "A search operation is continuing for the 22 people," a South Korean foreign ministry official in Seoul said, adding eight of the missing are South Korean nationals and 14 are Filipinos.

 South Korea has requested Brazil and Uruguay to aid in the search and rescue.

 The very large ore carrier (VLOC) Stellar Daisy was sailing from Brazil to China carrying iron ore when it sent a distress signal to its operator, South Korea’s Polaris Shipping, on Friday, Yonhap said.

 The ship is owned by the shipping firm which is based in Busan, South Korea. ||||| 2017/04/02 10:19

 (ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; UPDATES with more details throughout; ADDS photo)

 SEOUL, April 2 (Yonhap) -- Search and rescue efforts are under way to find 22 crew members of a South Korean ship that sank in the South Atlantic last week, after two sailors were safely picked up in a life raft, the Seoul government said Sunday.

 The search for the missing South Korean ship, the Stellar Daisy, began Saturday, one day after the ship's crew sent a text to their South Korean employer, saying their ship was sinking.

 The Marshall Islands-flagged ship was sailing near Uruguay when it made the distress call, according to the foreign ministry here. Seoul's embassy in Brazil had asked for assistance to find the missing crew with the Brazilian Air Force dispatching a C-130 plane to the site.

 The escape raft carrying the two Filipino crew was found drifting by commercial ships in the area. Another raft and two powered lifeboats that can carry up to 30 people each were also discovered, but no one was on board. Authorities said that all crew members probably were wearing their life vests.

 The 266,000-ton Stella Daisy, carrying eight South Korean and 16 Filipino sailors, departed Rio de Janeiro on March 26. The fate of the South Korean ore carrier also remains unconfirmed.

 (END) |||||

– A ship that measures more than 1,000 feet long has vanished in the South Atlantic. The Stellar Daisy departed Rio de Janeiro last Sunday and was bound for China with its load of iron ore. But on Friday, while off Uruguay, the crew texted their South Korean employer to say the 266,000-ton ship was taking on water on the port side, reports Reuters. Commercial ships in the area some 1,500 miles off the coast were made aware of the situation and began searching; two Filipino crew members were found in a life raft. But Yonhap reports that a second raft and two 30-person lifeboats were both found empty, though authorities believe the 22 missing crew members were wearing life vests. "A search operation is continuing for the 22," says a South Korean foreign ministry official. The BBC reports the Uruguayan navy has said ships participating in the search detected the smell of fuel.


News article:

BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - The United States should not allow a delegation from Taiwan to attend U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, raising a new bone of contention in Beijing’s relations with the incoming government.

 A demonstrator holds flags of Taiwan and the United States in support of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen during an stop-over after her visit to Latin America in Burlingame, California, U.S., January 14, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam - RTSVJRJ

 Trump broke with decades of precedent last month by taking a congratulatory telephone call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, and he has also said the “One China” policy was up for negotiation, a position Beijing strongly rejected.

 A Taiwan delegation, led by former premier and ex-ruling party leader Yu Shyi-kun, and including a Taiwan national security adviser and some lawmakers, will attend Friday’s inauguration, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said this week.

 It is typical for Taiwan to send a delegation to U.S. presidential inaugurations.

 A spokesman for Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s office said no meetings were scheduled with the new Trump administration while the delegation was there for the event.

 China considers Taiwan a breakaway province, with no right to have any kind of diplomatic relations with other countries.

 Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China was opposed to Taiwan using any excuse to send people to the United States to “engage in activities to interfere in or damage China-U.S. ties”.

 “We again urge the relevant side in the United States not to allow the Taiwan authority to send a so-called delegation to the United States to attend the presidential inauguration and not have any form of official contact with Taiwan,” Hua told a regular news briefing.

 “China’s position has already accurately and unmistakably been given to the U.S. administration and Trump’s team.”

 China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, will attend the inauguration on its behalf, she added.

 Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists.

 China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and proudly democratic Taiwan has shown no interest in wanting to be run by Beijing.

 China is deeply suspicious of Taiwan’s Tsai, whom it suspects of wanting to push for the island’s formal independence, a red line for China.

 Tsai, who visited the U.S. this month while traveling to and from Central America, says she wants to maintain peace with China.

 The administration of President Barack Obama has repeatedly reinforced the U.S. commitment to the “one China” policy, under which Washington acknowledges China’s position of sovereignty over Taiwan, since Trump’s call with the Taiwanese leader.

 Trump is to be sworn into office on Friday. ||||| BEIJING (AP) — China on Wednesday called on the U.S. to bar a Taiwanese delegation from attending Donald Trump's inauguration on Friday, underscoring concerns that the incoming president could seek to redefine relations between Beijing, Taipei and Washington.

 Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the request had been passed to Trump's transition team and to the current administration of Barack Obama.

 "We urge the U.S. side once again not to allow the Taiwan administration to send the so-called delegation to attend the inauguration and to avoid any forms of official exchange with Taiwan," Hua said at a daily briefing.

 China firmly opposes "anyone from the Taiwan administration engaged in activities that interfere or undermine the China-U.S. relationship in the U.S. under any pretext," she said.

 Delegation leader and former Premier Yu Shyi-kun departed for Washington on Monday together with politicians from both Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the opposition Nationalists.

 Along with attending the inauguration, the delegates plan to hold talks with politicians, academics and overseas Chinese community representatives.

 Trump angered Beijing and upset decades of diplomatic precedent by talking by phone with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen shortly after winning November's presidential election.

 Last week, he said in a newspaper interview that Washington's "one China policy" under which it recognized Beijing in 1979 was open to negotiation, and earlier questioned why the U.S. should be bound by such an approach without China offering incentives.

 The U.S. has no formal relations with Taipei in deference to China, which claims the island as its own. However, the two maintain robust informal ties, while Washington sells Taiwan arms and is legally bound to regard any threat to the island as a matter of grave concern.

 Tensions across the Taiwan Strait have risen since Tsai's election last year, with Beijing cutting off contacts and working to deepen Taiwan's diplomatic isolation. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A tense political triangle just got even stickier in advance of Donald Trump's inauguration. China's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday the US shouldn't allow a Taiwanese delegation to attend Friday's ceremony, Reuters reports. This request was passed to both the Trump transition team and to President Obama's people, a Foreign Ministry rep said, per the AP. Taiwan's own Foreign Ministry announced earlier this week that, as per usual protocol during US presidential inaugurations, it would be sending a delegation, including ex-Premier Yu Shyi-kun, a national security adviser, and a sprinkling of legislators. China hasn't been happy with the incoming administration since Trump spoke on the phone with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in early December. A Tsai rep tells Reuters no delegation members are scheduled to meet in any official capacity with members of the Trump administration during their trip.


Here is a news article: This image shows a post on Info Wars' Twitter account showing right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones questioning CNN journalist Oliver Darcy on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2018, in Washington. Twitter is permanently... (Associated Press)

 This image shows a post on Info Wars' Twitter account showing right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones questioning CNN journalist Oliver Darcy on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2018, in Washington. Twitter is permanently banning Jones and his "Infowars" show for abusive behavior. Twitter says Jones posted a... (Associated Press)

 NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter is permanently banning right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his "Infowars" show for abusive behavior.

 The company said Jones won't be able to create new accounts on Twitter or take over any existing ones. Twitter said Jones posted a video on Wednesday that violates the company's policy against "abusive behavior."

 The video in question showed Jones shouting at and berating CNN journalist Oliver Darcy for some 10 minutes in between two congressional hearings focused on social media. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified at both hearings, but did not appear to witness the confrontation.

 Jones had about 900,000 followers on Twitter. "Infowars" had about 430,000.

 Twitter had previously suspended Jones for a week. But until now it had resisted muzzling Jones further. Other tech companies have limited Jones by suspending him for longer periods, as Facebook did, and by taking down his pages and radio stations.

 Jones heckled Darcy in a public hallway where reporters were waiting to enter the House committee room. He criticized the journalist's reporting and appearance, referencing his "skinny jeans" and repeatedly saying, "just look at this guy's eyes" and "look at that smile."

 At one point, he said Darcy was "smiling like a possum that crawled out of the rear end of a dead cow. That's what you look like. You look like a possum that got caught doing some really nasty stuff — in my view. You're a public figure too."

 Darcy has aggressively questioned social media companies about the forbearance they showed Jones, asking why they have allowed him to remain on their platforms for as long as they have.

 Jones is currently active on Facebook; his suspension there recently expired.

 __

 Associated Press Writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this story from Washington. ||||| Today, we permanently suspended @ realalexjones and @ infowars from Twitter and Periscope. We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts’ past violations.https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/abusive-behavior … ||||| Twitter has permanently banned the accounts of right-wing conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones and InfoWars for violating the company's abusive behavior policies, the company said Thursday.

 The ban appears to be related to a heated exchange between Jones and a CNN reporter Wednesday, which Jones live-streamed on the Twitter-owned video service Periscope. Jones ranted at the reporter, as well as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, following back-to-back congressional hearings where Dorsey addressed online election interference, as well as accusations of political bias and conservative censorship on the platform.

 "We took this action based on new reports of Tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior policy, in addition to the accounts' past violations," the company said in a series of tweets. "We wanted to be open about this action given the broad interest in this case."

 The ban comes weeks after Jones' accounts were removed or suspended by other major tech companies including Apple, Facebook and YouTube. Twitter had initially declined to take disciplinary action against Jones, saying the accounts had not violated community guidelines, but later suspended him from posting on his accounts for a period of seven days.

 Accounts for Jones and Infowars were also banned from Periscope. Jones will not be able to recreate his presence on the sites under another account. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Twitter has again suspended Alex Jones of InfoWars infamy. And this time it's permanent, CNN reports. "We took this action based on new reports of tweets and videos posted yesterday that violate our abusive behavior police, in addition to the accounts' past violations," Twitter tweeted on Thursday afternoon; InfoWars is also permanently banned. CNBC notes that the ban is related to a confrontation between Jones and a CNN reporter at Capitol Hill on Wednesday that was streamed live on Twitter's Periscope service. Jones berated Oliver Darcy for several minutes, the AP reports, at one point saying the journalist was smiling "like a possum that crawled out of the rear end of a dead cow" and mocking his "skinny jeans." Other social media platforms, including YouTube and Facebook, have previously given Jones the boot. However, Jones is reportedly back on Facebook as that ban has expired. Between his namesake Twitter account and the InfoWars account, Jones had about 1.3 million followers, per the AP.


Article:

This article is over 1 year old

 Social media quick to ridicule US president after he changed his header to feature tweet denying collusion with Russia

 Trump mocked for adding one of his own tweets to Twitter banner

 Another day, another Trump tweet – except this time it was in his Twitter banner.

 Former acting US attorney general Sally Yates has been testifying to a Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing about her knowledge of contacts between team Trump and Russia. Not only has the US president been livetweeting, he also made a brief change to his Twitter banner to include one of his own tweets refuting collusion with Russia:

 Tom McKay (@thetomzone) Holy cow. This is ACTUALLY DONALD TRUMP'S NEW TWITTER BANNER. pic.twitter.com/B59LT0lLZo

 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Director Clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows- there is "no evidence" of collusion w/ Russia and Trump.

 As the Daily Beast pointed out, there are much easier ways to draw attention to a tweet: it would take a lot less time to pin a tweet to the top of your profile than to Photoshop it into a Twitter banner.

 As you’d expect, there was a lot of mocking on Twitter as people noticed the change:

 Oliver Willis (@owillis) trump changed his twitter header to push back on the russia story, showing he's not concerned about it and its NOT A BIG DEAL AT ALL pic.twitter.com/MYzcppjEWx

 pat tobin (@tastefactory) Pretty weird of Trump to photoshop an old AIM away message into his twitter header pic.twitter.com/Q0Fvvzi4mY

 Susie Meister (@susie_meister) Trump's new header is like when the old guy gets a convertible to convince you he's young, except instead of age it's treason.

 Trump has since changed his Twitter header to a picture without a badly-Photoshopped tweet.

 This isn’t the first time Trump’s Twitter headers have led to mockery. The day of his inauguration, the official @POTUS Twitter account featured a photo from Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009. ||||| Washington (CNN) Sally Yates didn't bring a smoking gun to the latest episode of the long-running political melodrama entwining the White House and Russia.

 But in a Senate hearing on Monday, the former acting attorney general produced just enough fresh intrigue to offer Democrats a new opening in the war of attrition they are waging against Donald Trump's presidency.

 In her long-awaited first public accounting of her dealings with the Trump administration, Yates testified that she explicitly warned White House counsel Donald McGahn in January that former national security adviser Michael Flynn had been compromised and could be a target for Russian blackmail.

 Her intervention provoked an awkward new question that the White House will now have to answer. Why did it then take 18 days for Flynn to be fired -- a step that only took place when The Washington Post reported he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his calls with Russia's envoy to Washington?

 "The vice president was unknowingly making false statements to the public and ... we believed that General Flynn was compromised with respect to the Russians," Yates said. "We felt like the vice president and others were entitled to know that the information that they were conveying to the American people wasn't true."

 RELATED: Trump made one of his own tweets into a Twitter header. Cue the Twitter shade.

 The revelations did not in themselves represent a development that could break open the mystery of Moscow's meddling with last year's election and increasingly vocal Democratic claims of collusion between Russia and members of the President's inner circle. The revelations did not in themselves represent a development that could break open the mystery of Moscow's meddling with last year's election and increasingly vocal Democratic claims of collusion betweenRussia and members of the President's inner circle.

 But they did cast new doubt on Trump's judgment in choosing Flynn, a controversial Washington figure, for such a crucial job in the first place -- on a day when it emerged that outgoing President Barack Obama counseled him to pick another national security adviser.

 And the Yates claims were also an apt metaphor for the long and corrosive drama over Russia. Like many other allegations, hers were enough to tarnish and raise suspicions about the administration's conduct, but were not sufficient to pitch it into an existential crisis.

 It may also not be easy for the administration to discredit Yates. Her calm presentation and refusal to get riled by some Republican senators trying to knock her off her game made her come across as a credible witness.

 The presence of her co-witness, Washington veteran and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, also had the effect of bolstering Yates' comments.

 More substantively, her testimony to a judiciary subcommittee represented the latest incremental step yet toward a broader understanding of why so many links have surfaced between Trump world and Russia.

 RELATED: The many paths from Trump to Russia

 Alone, her appearance didn't prove much. But collectively with the other multiple channels of investigation, it could add up to more. Still, Democrats must be frustrated that they still have not made serious claims about Russian collusion with the White House. And their repeated calls for a special counsel they have no power to task often serves to stress the futility of their minority status on Capitol Hill. Alone, her appearance didn't prove much. But collectively with the other multiple channels of investigation, it could add up to more. Still, Democrats must be frustrated that they still have not made serious claims about Russian collusion with the White House. And their repeated calls for a special counsel they have no power to task often serves to stress the futility of their minority status on Capitol Hill.

 But if Trump's quick and dismissive reaction to her appearance is any guide, the Yates testimony put another dent in the administration's defenses.

 "Sally Yates made the fake media extremely unhappy today -- she said nothing but old news!" Trump said in a volley of tweets, possibly designed as a head-fake away from the substance of the hearing.

 He added: "The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?"

 Sally Yates made the fake media extremely unhappy today --- she said nothing but old news! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017

 The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017

 Investigation could run into next year

 The answer to that question may not come for a long time yet -- not at least until the FBI probe into Russian interference in last year's election and possible links to the Trump campaign wraps up.

 FBI Director James Comey has given no timeline for the investigation. And there are new signs that congressional investigations into the affair may linger deep into Trump's term.

 CNN's Manu Raju reported Monday that a mountain of evidence and partisan disagreement mean it could be 2018 before the job is wrapped up. And even then, hopes are fading that there can be a bipartisan conclusion on the extent of Russian election meddling.

 The White House downplayed the hearing by pointing out the lack of a smoking gun -- a reality that so far has been central to the administration's claims that the Russia story is an invention of Democrats smarting at losing the election.

 "Remember, the bottom line with the Russia stuff is the question of collusion during the campaign," a White House official said.

 "If there is any other observation to make beyond the fact that after roughly 11 months of inquiries, no evidence of collusion has been presented, it is that there are divisions among Democrats between those willing to admit there is nothing there and those who would rather score political points," the official said.

 "President Obama's former Director of National Intelligence and his former acting CIA Director have both said they have seen no evidence of collusion. Clapper repeated his assertion today."

 More questions for the White House

 Still, in the short term, the testimony of Yates likely means another lost day ahead for the White House as it uses up time and political energy brushing off a new round of questions and allegations about ties to Russia.

 No doubt White House spokesman Sean Spicer and Trump himself would much rather be talking about the House vote to repeal Obamacare last week or the President's debut foreign trip in a couple of weeks.

 But instead, Spicer, and the President if he appears on camera Tuesday, will be pressed to answer a series of questions arising out of the Yates hearing. The most pressing one is why it took 18 days for Flynn to be let go, after the White House was told he was compromised.

 During that time, Flynn was the most senior national security official in the West Wing, privy to every intelligence and foreign policy decision and secret, all the while, at risk of being blackmailed by Moscow, according to Yates.

 Then there is the apparent contradiction between how Yates described her efforts to raise the alarm about Flynn and the White House's description of the encounters.

 The former acting attorney general said that she walked McGahn through Flynn's conduct in two meetings, on January 26 and again on January 27.

 JUST WATCHED Yates, Cruz spar over Trump's travel ban Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Yates, Cruz spar over Trump's travel ban 01:31

 She was understood to be referring to telephone calls between Flynn and Russian ambassador to Moscow Sergey Kislyak before Trump took office.

 Strikingly, Yates warned that not only was Flynn not telling the truth about the calls, the Russians knew and could probably prove he was lying -- therefore opening him up to blackmail.

 "The Russians can use compromising material in a variety of ways, sometimes overtly, sometimes subtly," said Yates.

 'Lying to the FBI is a crime, correct?'

 Monday's hearing was also a master class by Democrats in the use of innuendo and suspicion to maximize the political damage to the administration.

 Yates for example testified that she had seen a readout of an interview Flynn gave to the FBI during January, before she headed to meet McGahn.

 She would not comment on the substance of the interview but her comment allowed Democratic senators to lead her on a path that raised the unspoken possibility that Flynn had not only not told the truth to Pence, but to the bureau.

 Flynn has requested immunity from congressional committees in order to testify about Russia issues, but has not so far been charged or accused of a crime.

 But Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut deliberately raised the question of Flynn's possible guilt in an exchange with Yates.

 "Lying to the FBI is a crime, correct?" Blumenthal asked.

 "It is, yes," Yates replied.

 "Violation of 18 United States Code 1001?" Blumenthal continued.

 "That's right," Yates said.

 "And it's punishable by five years in prison?" was the next leading question.

 "Yes, it is."

 Blumenthal again: "So, if Michael Flynn lied to the FBI, he had a ton of legal trouble facing him?

 "He could face criminal prosecution if he lied to the FBI, yes." ||||| Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates testified to a Senate Judiciary Committee panel on Monday in one of the most hotly anticipated hearings of the Trump era to date.

 Yates’s testimony was a huge media event, commanding hours of live cable news coverage.

 She came before the committee following several media reports that she had warned the White House that then-national security adviser Michael Flynn had been compromised almost three weeks before he resigned. However, nothing had been heard on the record from Yates herself.

 Yates was fired over a separate matter days after delivering the warning about Flynn. She declined to order the Department of Justice to defend President Trump Donald John TrumpTillerson: Russia already looking to interfere in 2018 midterms Dems pick up deep-red legislative seat in Missouri Speier on Trump's desire for military parade: 'We have a Napoleon in the making' MORE’s controversial executive order that sought to temporarily bar most travelers and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim nations, as well as indefinitely halt the admission of Syrian refugees.

 In a further twist, Yates’s Monday testimony was preceded by tweets from Trump implying, without evidence, that she had leaked classified information to the media. She denied this during the hearing, as did former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who testified alongside her.

 In the hours before Yates appeared, NBC News also broke the news that former President Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaGOP lawmaker: Dems not standing for Trump is 'un-American' Forget the Nunes memo — where's the transparency with Trump’s personal finances? Mark Levin: Clinton colluded with Russia, 'paid for a warrant' to surveil Carter Page MORE had personally warned Trump against appointing Flynn to such a sensitive role before he assumed office.

 What were the most important points from the hearing itself?

 Yates’s testimony is trouble for the White House

 The drama and detail of Yates’s testimony amounted to bad news for the White House.

 The core of her account was that she held two meetings with White House counsel Don McGahn on Jan. 26 and Jan. 27 warning about the dangers pertaining to Flynn. The former lieutenant general would not resign until Feb. 13, after the shortest-ever tenure as national security adviser.

 As Yates portrayed it, she was clear with McGahn that Flynn was compromised. She believed — correctly, as it turned out — that Flynn had misled senior figures in the administration, including Vice President Pence, about the nature of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, during the transition period.

 “To state the obvious, you don’t want your national security adviser compromised by the Russians,” Yates said, in one of several memorable lines during the hearing. She also raised the possibility of Flynn being blackmailed by the Russians.

 The way in which Yates described her encounters with McGahn was very different from the more casual tone adopted by the White House. Soon after Flynn left, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that Yates had merely sought to “give a quote ‘heads-up’ to us on some comments that might have seemed in conflict with what [Flynn] had sent the vice president.”

 Yates, by contrast, characterized her desire for a meeting as “a matter of some urgency” because of the gravity of the issue.

 There were also some intriguing details in her testimony. Yates said that McGahn had asked her how Flynn had performed when FBI agents interviewed him — a question she said she had declined to answer. The FBI interview apparently took place inside the White House.

 Taken as a whole, Yates’s testimony only sharpens the question of why the Trump administration left Flynn in such a sensitive position after receiving her warning.

 The battle over Trump’s ‘travel ban’ has not ended

 The issue central to Yates’s firing still generates political heat — as was shown during one of the most spectacular clashes of the hearing.

 Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzSasse statement: Trump nominee who spread conspiracy theories has a ‘tinfoil hat’ Coalition of 44 groups calls for passage of drug pricing bill For the sake of our democracy, politicians must stop bickering MORE (R-Texas) needled Yates over her decision to refuse to defend the travel ban. The Texas senator asked her if she was familiar with a certain part of the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the president broad authority to decide who can enter the United States.

 Yates, who seemed prepared for that line of attack, shot back that she was equally familiar with another statue that outlaws discrimination in immigration matters on the basis of race or nation of birth, among other things.

 Yates held her own against similar questioning from Sen. John Cornyn John CornynDems confront Kelly after he calls some immigrants 'lazy' McConnell: 'Whoever gets to 60 wins' on immigration GOP senators turning Trump immigration framework into legislation MORE (R-Texas), who complained that she had “countermanded an executive order of the president of the United States because you disagreed with it as a policy matter.”

 Republicans are likely to defend those questions as legitimate inquiries into whether Yates overreached or let her personal views cloud her professional judgment. Democrats will see them as an effort to delegitimize her other testimony.

 No break from partisanship

 In his opening remarks, Sen. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamMcConnell: 'Whoever gets to 60 wins' on immigration Overnight Tech: Uber exec says 'no justification' for covering up hack | Apple considers battery rebates | Regulators talk bitcoin | SpaceX launches world's most powerful rocket Overnight Cybersecurity: Tillerson proposes new cyber bureau at State | Senate bill would clarify cross-border data rules | Uber exec says 'no justification' for covering up breach MORE (R-S.C.) emphasized his hope that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election could transcend party lines.

 “When a foreign power interferes in our election, it doesn’t matter who they targeted, we are all in the same boat,” Graham argued.

 But the questioning of Yates and Clapper did not fulfill that hope.

 GOP senators spent much of their time trying to excoriate Yates for her conduct on the executive order or raising concerns about leaks that were damaging to the White House.

 Democrats, meanwhile, sought to paint the Trump administration’s actions in the most negative light possible. Sen. Al Franken Alan (Al) Stuart FrankenOvernight Finance: Senators near two-year budget deal | Trump would 'love to see a shutdown' over immigration | Dow closes nearly 600 points higher after volatile day | Trade deficit at highest level since 2008 | Pawlenty leaving Wall Street group Pawlenty departing Wall Street group as campaign rumors swirl Bachmann won't run for Franken's Senate seat because she did not hear a 'call from God' MORE (D-Minn.) called Flynn “a danger to this Republic.”

 Bad for Trump, but no smoking gun

 While it was not a good day for the White House overall, there was no surprise “smoking gun” uncovered to inflict unexpected damage on Trump himself.

 The Trump-specific controversy during the day was mostly engendered by his morning tweet encouraging people to “ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Counsel.”

 Some liberals on social media accused Trump of engaging in de facto witness intimidation. Spicer, during his daily White House press briefing, parried that the tweet “speaks for itself.”

 But it was McGahn, not Trump, who was the most central administration figure during the hearing. Yates said the White House counsel had not told her during their second meeting whether he had informed Trump of the issues raised in their first encounter.

 One point of intrigue is whether McGahn will answer some of the questions raised by Yates’s testimony in a public forum.

 Speculation about Yates running for office could get louder

 The liberal reaction on social media to Yates’s testimony was exuberantly positive.

 The praise was focused particularly on her clash with Cruz and on the bluntness of her words regarding the seriousness of the Flynn matter.

 Yates seemed to relish even the harshest exchanges during the hearing, and she never came close to losing her poise.

 There is sure to be speculation that Yates could seek, and win, political office — if she wants it.

 The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on Donald Trump’s presidency. ||||| Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former acting Attorney General General Sally Yates appear before the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism on May 8. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Key moments from Sally Yates' Flynn testimony

 Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates broke her silence Monday, detailing her role in the ousting of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

 Her testimony, before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, came amid a series of investigations into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between Donald Trump's campaign and Moscow.

 Story Continued Below

 Below are highlights from the hearing, which also included testimony from former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

 Yates says Flynn was susceptible to blackmail

 Yates for the first time publicly detailed her efforts to alert the White House that Flynn was potentially susceptible to Russian blackmail.

 She told senators she held a meeting Jan. 26 with White House counsel Don McGahn in which she laid out the evidence that Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other senior officials about the nature of his phone calls with Russia’s ambassador.

 “To state the obvious, you don’t want your national security adviser compromised with the Russians,” Yates said, explaining that the Russians knew Flynn had misled Pence and could potentially use this to blackmail him.

 Flynn was not fired until Feb. 13, after it had become public that he misled Pence. Democrats point to the 18-day gap between Yates' warnings and Flynn's firing as evidence the White House did not take the concerns seriously.

 Yates’ own firing creates some awkward moments

 As Yates discussed her efforts to inform the White House that Flynn was compromised, her story came to an abrupt end. She could not say what happened after Jan. 30 — the day she herself was fired by Trump after she refused to defend Trump’s first travel ban executive order in court.

 Asked multiple times about how the White House reacted to her warnings about Flynn, Yates said she didn’t know. “I was no longer with DOJ after the 30th,” she said.

 Yates learned about travel ban from the media

 Yates said she met with McGahn the same afternoon the administration rolled out its executive order targeting citizens from several Muslim-majority countries, but was not told about it at the time.

 “I learned about this from media reports,” she told the subcommittee of the Jan. 30 meeting, which turned out to be her last day at the Justice Department.

 Yates’ comment came after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) pointedly asked why she went against the Justice Department’s prestigious Office of Legal Counsel, which found the executive order to be lawful on Jan. 27.

 "In the over 200 years of the Department of Justice history, are you aware of any instance in which the Department of Justice has formerly approved the legality of a policy and three days later the attorney general has directed the department not to follow that policy and to defy that policy?" Cruz asked.

 Yates said she wasn't but added that she was also not aware of any instance where the counsel was advised “not to tell” the country’s top law enforcement official about such an action until after it was over.

 She also strongly defended her decision and reiterated that she viewed the executive order, which was blocked by the courts, as unlawful.

 “I did my job the best way I knew how,” she said. “I looked at this EO, I looked at the law, I talked with the folks at the Department of Justice, gathered them all to get their views and their input, and I did my job.”

 Clapper was not aware of the FBI's investigation into Trump

 Clapper told lawmakers that he was unaware the FBI had launched an investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials last summer.

 He noted “the unique position of the FBI” between intelligence and law enforcement. “As a consequence, I was not aware of the counterintelligence investigation Director Comey first referred to during his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on March 20th, and that comports with my public statements.”

 Subcommittee chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) used his time to ask how Clapper couldn’t have known about the investigation if he approved the intelligence community’s January assessment on Russian meddling, wondering if the reason is because the inquiry wasn’t “mature enough.”

 “That’s a possibility,” Clapper replied. He speculated that another reason the investigation didn’t reach him is the evidence gathered to that point wasn’t conclusive enough.

 Clapper and Yates denied being anonymous sources on Trump and Russia

 Asked by Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, whether either had “ever been an anonymous source in a news report about matters relating to Mr. Trump, his associates or Russia's attempt on meddle in the election,” both Clapper and Yates denied doing so.

 Key moments from Sally Yates', James Clapper's Flynn testimony poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201705/2858/1155968404_5426384339001_5426380263001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true

 “No,” Clapper said.

 “Absolutely not,” answered Yates.

 Both also denied authorizing others in their respective agencies to be anonymous sources in such stories.

 Earlier in the day on Twitter, Trump had urged the committee to question Yates “under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Counsel.”

 U.S. intelligence was told about possible Trump-Russia ties by allies, Clapper says

 Clapper confirmed media reports that the United Kingdom and other European allies passed along information to U.S. intelligence agencies in 2016 of contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials.

 “Yes, it is and it’s also quite sensitive,” Clapper said about the accuracy of the reports in response to questions from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat.

 “The specifics are quite sensitive,” Clapper added

 He said that there was evidence of Russian digital snooping going back to 2015 but that the activity was mainly “information gathering,” such as viewing voter registrations rolls around the country.

 Franken speculates on Trump’s motivations — and gets a laugh

 Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) devoted part of his time to ruminating on why it took Trump 18 days to fire Flynn after learning that he had misled Pence. But Yates wasn’t eager to speculate.

 “We're trying on put a puzzle together here, everybody,” Franken told the room. “And maybe, just maybe, he didn't get rid of a guy who lied to the vice president, who got paid by the Russians, who went on Russia Today, because there are other people in his administration who met secretly with the Russians and didn't reveal it til later, until they were caught. That may be why it took him 18 days, until it became public, to get rid of Mike Flynn, who was a danger to this republic.”

 Sign up here for POLITICO Huddle A daily play-by-play of congressional news in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.

 He then asked Yates, “Care to comment?” The room erupted in laughter, knowing that she would not be eager to offer her opinion on Trump’s motivations.

 “I don't think I'm going to touch that, senator,” she said.

 Ted Cruz asked about the Clinton email scandal

 Cruz devoted several of his first questions to the scandal surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of State.

 Without naming them, Cruz described Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s practice of forwarding email messages from the server to her husband, Anthony Weiner, and asked Clapper what concerns that behavior might raise.

 “It raises all kinds of potential security concerns,” Clapper said in response to Cruz’s hypothetical. ||||| “To state the obvious: You don’t want your national security adviser compromised with the Russians,” Ms. Yates told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee.

 But what was obvious to Ms. Yates appears to have been less so to Mr. Trump.

 Even after being warned that Mr. Flynn represented a blackmail risk, Mr. Trump kept the general on as national security adviser for another two weeks, firing him only after The Washington Post found out about the warnings.

 Photo

 2. Leaks trump all else.

 In a Twitter message posted hours before Monday’s hearing, Mr. Trump suggested that Ms. Yates had tipped off journalists about Mr. Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador.

 The president presented the accusation against Ms. Yates without evidence, but such details have rarely stopped him. Since taking office, Mr. Trump has made it clear that he believes the leaks of classified information are far more significant than the actual connections between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.

 Ms. Yates said Monday that she had never leaked classified information, and was not the source of any reports about Mr. Flynn.

 She also pointed out that there were three other people in the room for the conversation, including Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel.

 3. The F.B.I. keeps secrets — from everyone.

 Among the most secretive investigations conducted by the F.B.I. are those that examine the links between American citizens and foreign governments, which are known as counterintelligence investigations. So when the F.B.I. began examining possible connections between Trump associates and Russia this past summer, it appeared to have told almost no one — not even Mr. Clapper, who was then overseeing the bureau as the director of national intelligence.

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 Mr. Clapper testified Monday that he was unaware of the investigation into the Trump campaign until James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, acknowledged it when testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on March 20.

 For Mr. Clapper, the issue is also one of personal integrity. In early March, after Mr. Trump accused Mr. Obama of wiretapping him during the campaign — a universally rejected accusation for which there is no evidence — Mr. Clapper went on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and made a sweeping denial.

 “There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, the president-elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign,” Mr. Clapper said.

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 Journalists have since revealed a wrinkle in that story. The F.B.I. obtained a court-approved wiretap on Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Trump’s campaign, based on evidence that he was operating as a Russian agent.

 In his testimony on Monday, Mr. Clapper said his ignorance of the F.B.I. investigation before Mr. Comey’s “comports with my public statements.”

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 4. Letting go (of Clinton’s emails) is hard.

 Few would disagree that Mr. Flynn’s falsehoods or Russia’s meddling are important. But for some Republicans, the alpha and omega of any congressional hearing is Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state.

 In the midst of all of the talk of Russia and Ms. Yates’s warnings about Mr. Flynn, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a former Republican presidential candidate, steered the hearing toward the email issue. He asked Mr. Clapper what he would do if, hypothetically, his employee forwarded emails containing classified information.

 The question was a thinly veiled reference to Huma Abedin, an aide to Mrs. Clinton, forwarding emails containing classified information to her husband, Anthony D. Weiner, a former New York representative. Mr. Comey said Ms. Abedin forwarded the messages for Mr. Weiner to print for her to give to Mrs. Clinton.

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 Several current and former government officials familiar with the investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s handling of delicate information said that while some emails had been forwarded, a vast majority were instead backed up to Mr. Weiner’s computer.

 Mr. Clapper did his best to keep on his game face — and to stick to the hypotheticals.

 “It raises all kinds of potential security concerns, again depending on the content of the email, what the intent was, a whole bunch of variables here would have to be considered,” Mr. Clapper said. “But given a hypothetical scenario, I’d be quite concerned.”

 5. You can learn a lot from the news media.

 Ms. Yates’s brief tenure as acting attorney general came to an abrupt end on the evening of Jan. 30 when she refused to defend Mr. Trump’s executive order barring refugees and travel from several predominantly Muslim countries.

 On Monday, Ms. Yates said the order came as a surprise to her. “Not only was the department not consulted, we weren’t even told about it,” she said. “I learned about this from media reports.”

 She then defended the decision that got her fired, explaining that she could not defend the order largely because Mr. Trump himself had indicated that it was intended to single out Muslims. Federal judges have since made similar findings as the case winds through the courts.

 Republican senators, though, pressed her to admit that she objected to the executive order as a policy. But she refused.

 “I don’t believe there are reasonable arguments that are grounded in truth” that would defend the travel ban, she said.

 6. Still, those reporters are pesky.

 There was a lot of talk about leaks of classified information — some of it comical.

 Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, asked Mr. Clapper if he had ever leaked “information, classified or unclassified, to the press?”

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 Mr. Clapper said that he had not done so knowingly, and then added: “Well, unclassified is not leaking. That’s sort of a non sequitur.”

 So Mr. Kennedy clarified, asking Mr. Clapper if he had ever given “information to a reporter that you didn’t want to have your name connected with.”

 Mr. Clapper said that he had not, and that he had “had many encounters with the media over my career.”

 “I’m sorry about that,” the senator said to laughs. |||||
What is a summary?

– Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates on Monday testified before a Senate subcommittee looking into the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russia, and analysts say she provided some key information about the departure of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn—and raised some new questions for the White House. A roundup of coverage: The New York Times lists six takeaways from the hearing. Chief among them: A lot of people, including Barack Obama and Chris Christie as well as Yates, had reservations about Flynn becoming national security adviser. "To state the obvious: You don’t want your national security adviser compromised with the Russians," Yates said in the hearing's most-quoted line. She said she warned that Flynn could be open to blackmail because he had lied about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. Politico lists several key moments from the hearing, including Yates' and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's denial that they were ever anonymous sources for news reports about Trump campaign ties to Russia. Another was when Yates disclosed that she had to learn about Trump's travel ban from media reports. Another takeaway: Some Republicans, including Ted Cruz, are still focusing on Hillary Clinton's emails, with Cruz asking Clapper a hypothetical question about email forwarding that the Times calls a "thinly veiled" reference to Huma Adebin and Anthony Weiner. The Washington Post notes that the hearing didn't explain why the White House waited 18 days to fire Flynn after learning that he had lied to the administration, and it is unclear what administration officials did with the information Yates gave them before she was fired for not defending Trump's travel ban. Trump attacked the testimony in a series of tweets, which CNN considers a sign that Yates may have "put another dent in the administration's defenses." "Sally Yates made the fake media extremely unhappy today," he tweeted. "She said nothing but old news!" The Hill notes that there was no "smoking gun" from the hearing that is expected to damage Trump. His most controversial moment of the day was a tweet saying people should "ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Counsel," which some Trump critics called witness intimidation. The Guardian reports that social media poked fun at Trump after his Twitter header banner was briefly altered to include one of his own tweets: "Director Clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows- there is 'no evidence' of collusion w/ Russia and Trump."