We produce this news digest every weekday. You can to receive these updates as an email newsletter each morning.
Trump in ever-hotter water –> New accusations from women claiming Trump touched them or behaved inappropriately have continued to surface over the last two days. Maggie Haberman rounds these stories up for The New York Times: “Two spoke to The New York Times. A third spoke to The Palm Beach Post. And CBS played a video clip from 1992 in which Mr. Trump can be heard talking about a 10-year-old girl, saying that he would be dating her in 10 years. And a former People magazine reporter on the Trump beat wrote that Mr. Trump had forced an unwanted kiss on her while she was on an assignment in 2005 and while his pregnant wife, Melania, was nearby. Mr. Trump’s campaign has denied all of the women’s accounts and has threatened to sue The Times. Those reports capped one from BuzzFeed earlier Wednesday quoting former Miss Teen USA contestants claiming that Mr. Trump had walked in on them while they were changing.”
Trump’s fighting back. He has threatened to sue publications that publish these accusations. Dylan Byers and Brian Stelter report for CNN: “High-ranking sources within the Trump campaign had told CNNMoney that they were ‘drafting’ lawsuits against both The Times and the Palm Beach Post, which published a separate story in which another women claimed Trump had groped her. When Times reporter Megan Twohey interviewed Trump by phone on Tuesday night, ‘he threatened to sue us if we published these allegations,’ Twohey told CNNMoney. She quoted Trump as saying that ‘none of this ever took place’ and calling her ‘a disgusting human being.’ Twohey also received a legal letter from a Trump attorney on Wednesday afternoon.”
Latest WikiLeak –> Last winter, video of a 2004 Bill Moyers interview with Elizabeth Warren caused the Hillary Clinton campaign some angst. Warren had told Moyers that as first lady, Clinton was in favor of a bill making it easier to declare bankruptcy. But once she was elected to the Senate, she opposed the bill, which was also opposed by credit card companies. Bernie Sanders used the video to paint Clinton as too cozy with Wall Street, and she went on George Stephanopoulos’ Sunday program to defend her record. Zach Carter reports for The Huffington Post: “Clinton expressed outrage that her primary opponent would result to ‘innuendo, insinuation charges’ about her record. ‘It had nothing to do with any money whatsoever, and I resent deeply any effort by the Sanders campaign to so imply.’ It was a forceful, detailed defense.
“There was just one hitch. It wasn’t true. And according to a trove of internal emails recently released by WikiLeaks, Clinton’s team knew it. ‘We have a problem,’ Clinton senior policy advisor Ann O’Leary wrote to campaign staffers that afternoon. ‘HRC overstayed (sic) her case this morning in a pretty big way.'”
Climate change-causing emissions drop –> Joe Ryan for Bloomberg: “It looks as if all those wind and solar farms in the US are making a dent in greenhouse gases that cause global warming. During the first six months of the year, carbon dioxide emissions from America’s energy industry dropped to the lowest point since 1991, according to a statement Wednesday from the US Energy Information Administration. That’s in part because warmer-than-average temperatures in the first quarter prompted fewer people to crank up their thermostats, lowering energy consumption. It’s also because clean energy installations increased 9 percent during the first half compared to a year earlier, reducing the need for power generated by burning coal and natural gas.”
The US attacks Yemeni rebels –> Matthew Rosenberg and Mark Mazzetti for The New York Times: “An American warship stationed off the coast of Yemen fired cruise missiles on Thursday at radar installations that the Pentagon said had been used by Yemeni insurgents to target another American warship in two missile attacks in the last four days. The strikes against the Houthi rebels marked the first time the United States has become involved militarily in the civil war between the Houthis, an indigenous Shiite group with loose connections to Iran, and the Yemeni government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni nations.”
Stumpf out –> NPR: “The chairman and chief executive of Wells Fargo & Co., John Stumpf, has resigned effective immediately in the aftermath of a scandal over the bank’s past practice of secretly selling services to unsuspecting customers. Stumpf will be replaced by President and Chief Operating Officer Timothy Sloan, long considered to be Stumpf’s eventual successor.”
Nobel lightning bolt –> Bob Dylan has won the Nobel Prize in literature. Best tweet of the morning: “I wouldn’t want to be the guy who gets Philip Roth’s coffee order wrong today.”
Morning Reads was compiled by John Light and edited by Michael Winship. See a story that you think should be included in Morning Reads? Tell us in the comments!
We produce this news digest every weekday. You can to receive these updates as an email newsletter each morning.
