WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL MCGAHN LEAVING IN FALL
White House Counsel Don McGahn, a consequential insider in President Donald Trump’s legal storms and successes and a key figure in the administration’s handling of the Russia investigation, will be leaving in the fall, the president announced Wednesday.
McGahn’s exit continues the churn of top officials as the administration sets records for turnover and the White House struggles to fill key vacancies.
Unlike some less-amiable separations, however, Trump praised McGahn as “a really good guy” who has done “an excellent job.”
Trump said McGahn’s departure had nothing to do with his interviews with the special counsel investigating possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia in the 2016 election.
Manafort asks to move upcoming trial, cites publicity in D.C.
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort asked Wednesday to move his upcoming trial out of the nation’s capital and to Roanoke, Va., with his lawyers citing “intensely negative news coverage” and potential juror bias.
“While federal courts often address issues of pretrial publicity in high-profile cases, it is difficult to conceive of a matter that has received media attention of the same magnitude as the prosecution of Mr. Manafort,” the lawyers wrote.
The request is similar to the one his team made last month before Manafort was tried on a different set of charges in Alexandria, Va.
The trial judge refused to send that case to Roanoke, and jurors found Manafort guilty of eight counts while deadlocking on 10 others.
Outcry over retirement age plan brings rare Putin concession.
MOSCOW» Facing protests and a noticeable dip in his approval ratings, President Vladimir Putin made rare concessions Wednesday to an unpopular pension reform package that increased the retirement age for Russians.
The televised address marked an extraordinary occasion when Putin apparently felt compelled to explain a major policy decision to the public, reflecting the contentious nature of the retirement reforms.
The general idea of increasing the retirement age was justified because of Russia’s economy and demographic trends and “cannot be put off any longer,” Putin said.
Two workers die in scaffolding collapse.
FLA.» Two ORLANDO, construction workers fell to their deaths when scaffolding collapsed as they were pouring concrete on the seventh floor of a 16-story hotel under construction near Disney World early Wednesday, Orange County Sheriff’s officials said.
The accident happened just outside Disney property, Orange County Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles said.
“They were on the scaffolding. And for reasons unknown at this time, that support structure gave way, sending two workers plummeting to the ground below. A third worker managed to hang on and climb to safety, Jachles said.
China races to corral a deadly outbreak of African Swine Fever before it spreads.
Chinese officials are scrambling to stop a deadly African Swine Fever outbreak that could decimate the country’s pig population.
Since early August, the virus has spread to four provinces about 745 miles apart. The budding epidemic could endanger the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of sow farmers and jeopardize China’s enormous pork industry. There are about 700 million pigs in China, half the world’s population. Pork is the country’s primary protein source.
If China cannot quickly contain the virus, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warned that it could jump to the Korean peninsula and southeast Asia, creating a continent-wide crisis.