Today’s edition of quick hits.
* A heartbreaking outbreak: “At least 2,000 people have died among the confirmed cases in Congo’s Ebola outbreak that is the fastest growing on record, according to the latest government data, as health authorities struggle to get help quickly to remote localities due to rebel conflict, bad roads and work stoppages over payment issues. Data published overnight into Tuesday showed the outbreak has recorded a total of 4,381 confirmed cases, including 2,011 deaths.”
* Among the many things that makes this story amazing is the fact that it leaked: “After boarding Air Force One last month in Turkey, President Donald Trump exited that airplane and embarked on another one in an extraordinary act of subterfuge aimed at avoiding a threat from Iran, according to a U.S. official.”
* If we hadn’t launched a misguided war, this new normal wouldn’t exist: “Persian Gulf energy producers are concluding that Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz will become permanent, disrupting their oil and gas exports and global energy supplies indefinitely. The problem is they worry the alternative — going back to war — would be worse.”
* A lawsuit worth watching: “Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall on Monday said he’ll sue to force the Trump administration to restore his security clearance, which it revoked Friday after claiming he had disclosed sensitive information about the Qatari-gifted jet now serving as Air Force One.”
* A case I’ve been following: “President Donald Trump just won permission to file a new, narrower complaint against the BBC in his defamation lawsuit against the British broadcaster. But whether his procedural win leads to a successful suit in the end remains to be seen.”
* There’s a reason records like these keep happening: “July was the hottest month ever recorded in the contiguous U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday, dramatically marking an already scorching summer. The average temperature was 76.9 degrees, the highest in the agency’s 132-year record and more than three degrees above the 20th-century average.”
* Actual physicians have entered the chat: “Numerous professional medical associations are openly opposing President Donald Trump’s executive order to reshape the nation’s childhood vaccine schedule, calling it a ‘dangerous’ and abrupt departure from science-based recommendations. The American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and American College of Physicians, among others, wrote in separate statements that the executive order is part of the second Trump administration’s amplification of vaccine skepticism.”
* Reasonable questions deserve reasonable answers: “Last month, the head of Belgium’s diamond industry presented President Donald Trump with a gift: a specially-made 18-karat gold ring worth an estimated $25,000 that celebrated Trump’s two terms in office. Four weeks later, his administration approved a tariff exemption worth billions of dollars to Belgium’s diamond industry. … Democrats in Congress say the ring ‘appears to be a cartoonish bribe.’”
See you tomorrow.
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