Daily Edition Top 10 (Week of June 10, 2019)

Heather Chin / June 13, 2019

Tensions between the House of Representatives and Trump administration continued this week.

President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege over documents about his administration’s efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. Census. Then the House Oversight Committee voted to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt for not complying with subpoenas about the issue.

The House Intelligence Committee also issued subpoenas for former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates and national security adviser Michael Flynn, and ex-White House aide Hope Hicks agreed to testify privately to Congress.

Meanwhile, Trump announced that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders would be leaving at the end of the month, and a federal watchdog agency recommended that longtime Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway be fired for being a “repeat offender” of the Hatch Act.

In international news, the U.S. blamed Iran for attacks on Japanese and Norwegian oil tankers, protests turned violent in Hong Kong as police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at civilians protesting a Chinese extradition law, Britain’s Boris Johnson led in the first round of votes over who would replace Theresa May as Conservative Party leader, and Botswana decriminalized homosexuality.

In business and tech news, several states filed an antitrust lawsuit to stop a merger of T-Mobile and Sprint and U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that hackers had stolen the photo IDs of over 100,000 U.S. travelers.

And in the sports world, the St. Louis Blues won their first Stanley Cup and the USA beat Thailand 13-0 in their first match of the 2019 Women’s World Cup.

Read more about these stories and the other biggest news of the week, as they appeared in The Daily Edition.

1. House Oversight votes to hold Barr, Ross in contempt over census dispute – CNN, Clare Foran, Lauren Fox

Top line: “The House Oversight Committee voted on Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress over a dispute related to the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The vote was 24-15. The vote came just hours after President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege over materials related to the citizenship question, a move that further escalated tensions between House Democrats investigating the 2020 census and the administration. The Democratic-led committee voted on a contempt resolution that recommends that the House of Representatives find Barr and Ross in contempt of Congress “for refusal to comply with subpoenas.” The contempt resolution includes citations for both civil and criminal contempt.”

Topic to follow: Census

2. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is leaving the White House at the end of the month, Trump says – CNBC, Jacob Pramuk

Top line: “White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will leave the job at the end of the month, President Donald Trump said Thursday. In a pair of tweets, the president said Sanders will return to her home state of Arkansas. He thanked her for what he called a “job well done.” Sanders was on the 2016 Trump campaign’s communications team. She was a deputy press secretary when Trump took office before she succeeded Sean Spicer as press secretary in July 2017. Sanders had an often adversarial relationship with the press.”

Topic to follow: Sarah Huckabee Sanders

3. Federal watchdog agency recommends removal of Kellyanne Conway from federal office for violating the Hatch Act – The Washington Post, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Lisa Rein, Josh Dawsey

Top line: “The Office of Special Counsel on Thursday recommended the removal of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway from federal office for violating the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in political activity in the course of their work. The report submitted to President Trump found that Conway violated the Hatch Act on numerous occasions by “disparaging Democratic presidential candidates while speaking in her official capacity during television interviews and on social media.” The agency described her as a “repeat offender.” The decision about whether to remove Conway is up to Trump. A senior White House official said Thursday the president is unlikely to punish Conway and instead will defend her. The White House counsel immediately issued a letter calling for the agency to withdraw its recommendation that Conway be removed — a request the Office of Special Counsel declined.”

Topic to follow: Kellyanne Conway

4. Hong Kong Protest Live Updates: Police Violence Puts Government on Defensive – The New York Times

Top line: “With the government on the defensive after a day of violent clashes between protesters and the police, the president of Hong Kong’s legislature on Thursday agreed to delay by at least two days consideration of a contentious bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China. Aiming to keep the pressure on, the Civil Human Rights Front, which organized a protest against the bill that drew as many as one million people last weekend, called on residents to take to the streets again this coming Sunday. The group also called for schools, shops and workers to go on strike on Monday.”

Topic to follow: Hong Kong

5. U.S. blames Iran for ‘blatant assault’ on oil tankers in Gulf of Oman – NBC News, Alexander Smith, Caroline Radnofsky, Linda Givetash, Abigail Williams, Kurt Chirbas

Top line: “An American-guided missile destroyer was sent to assist two burning tankers in the Gulf of Oman, following what the Trump administration on Thursday described as a “blatant assault” by Iran. Following the attack that could further inflame tensions between Washington and Tehran, the USS Bainbridge was dispatched to help the damaged Japanese and Norwegian vessels, according to 5th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Josh Frey. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the weapons used and previous threats issued by Iran point to Tehran as the culprit.”

Topic to follow: Gulf of Oman

6. States to File Antitrust Suit to Block T-Mobile-Sprint Deal – Bloomberg, David McLaughlin, Erik Larson

Top line: “A group of states sued to block T-Mobile US Inc.’s proposed takeover of Sprint Corp. on antitrust grounds, putting pressure on the Justice Department as it nears a final decision on the merger of the two wireless carriers. State attorneys general from nine states and the District of Columbia filed the lawsuit Tuesday in federal court in New York to stop a deal they say will harm competition and raise prices for consumers by at least $4.5 billion a year. The states’ challenge is a major setback to T-Mobile’s and Sprint’s plan to combine and take on industry leaders AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. Last month, the carriers cleared a key hurdle when they won support for their deal from the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.”

Topic to follow: Mergers and Acquisitions

7. Hackers Grabbed Security Camera Images Taken At Border Crossing, CBP Says – NPR, Scott Neuman

Top line: “Photos of travelers and their vehicle plates snapped at a U.S. border control point have been hacked, according to the Customs and Border Protection agency. Customs officials said in a statement on Monday that the hack involves fewer than 100,000 people photographed inside vehicles — as well as images of the vehicle license plates — that were taken as travelers left the U.S. through specific lanes at a single, unspecified land-border crossing. The images were captured by CBP over a six-week period. The images found their way into the database of a government subcontractor that hackers were able to penetrate, the agency said. CBP, which says it learned of the breach on May 31, says none of the images had yet surfaced on the Internet or Dark Web.”

Topic to follow: U.S. Customs and Border Protection

8. Blues complete amazing comeback with 4-1 win against Bruins for first Stanley Cup title – USA Today, Kevin Allen

Top line: “It took 52 years for the St. Louis Blues to win their first Stanley Cup and the last 160 days were the most memorable. At the end of Jan. 2, the Blues were last in the NHL, 31st out of 31 teams, and today they will be planning a parade. Rookie Jordan Binnington’s strong goaltending led the Blues to their Cup-clinching 4-1 win against the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final Wednesday night. He made 32 saves and set a rookie record with 16 playoff wins. In December, Binnington was the Blues’ No. 4 goalie. He didn’t make a start for St. Louis until Jan. 7. Now, he is of the top goalies in Blues history because he delivered the first Stanley Cup to the city.”

Magazine to follow: Stanley Cup Final 2019

9. USA 13-0 Thailand: United States claim biggest ever Women’s World Cup win – BBC News, Tom Garry

Top line: “The United States recorded the biggest ever victory in the Fifa Women’s World Cup as they crushed Thailand 13-0. The 2015 winners were 3-0 up at half-time, scored four times in 10 minutes in the second half and then added six more goals in the last 16 minutes. Alex Morgan scored five times for the United States with two goals apiece for Rose Lavelle and Samantha Mewis. Lindsey Horan, Megan Rapinoe, Mallory Pugh and Carli Lloyd also scored to beat Germany’s 11-0 win over Argentina. The United States’ previous biggest win in the tournament was a 7-0 success over Chinese Taipei in 1991, while Germany’s thrashing of Argentina came in 2007.”

Magazine to follow: Women’s World Cup 2019

10. Botswana decriminalizes gay sex in landmark Africa case – Associated Press, Cara Anna

Top line: “Botswana became the latest country to decriminalize gay sex on Tuesday, a landmark case for Africa, as the High Court rejected laws punishing it with up to seven years in prison. Jubilant activists in the packed courtroom cheered the unanimous decision in the southern African nation that is seen as one of the continent’s most stable and democratic. The ruling came less than a month after Kenya’s High Court had upheld similar sections of its own penal code in another closely watched case. More than two dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa have laws criminalizing gay sex, often holdovers from colonial times.”

Topic to follow: LGBTQI

Check out The Daily Edition throughout the week for your news updates.

~ HeatherC is reading Survival by Popular Science