Labor pick Puzder drops out; Trump slams leaks over Russia contact reports
Seeking to shift the narrative, Mr. Trump focused on the leaks from American intelligence agencies to the news media. Very un-American! he wrote on Twitter.
Todays episode of The Daily podcast reviews what is known about Mr. Flynns contacts with Russia. Listen from a computer, an iOS device or an Android device.
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Photo Credit Hilary Swift for The New York Times
3. Andrew Puzder, Mr. Trumps nominee for labor secretary, withdrew from consideration after growing Republican doubts that he could be confirmed.
It was a rare moment of cheer for Democrats, who had hammered Mr. Puzder the chief executive of the CKE Restaurants fast-food chain, which owns Hardees and Carls Jr. for his treatment of workers and opposition to the minimum wage.
His personal life had also been scrutinized. Senators had been shown a tape of his ex-wife, incognito on Oprah Winfreys television show in 1990, detailing her claims of abuse against him, which she later recanted.
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Photo Credit Ryan David Brown for The New York Times
4. Our reporters are tracking the case of Jeanette Vizguerra, a mother of three who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years.
She had to make a harrowing choice: check in with the immigration authorities, risking deportation and separation from her children, or bunker down inside a church for what could be months or years.
U.S. citizens are also feeling pressures, as activists report an increase in requests by border agents to examine travelers digital devices. Heres a guide to your rights if an agent asks you to unlock your phone.
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Photo Credit Christian Hansen for The New York Times NYTCREDIT: Christian Hansen for The New York Times
5. Throughout the country, independent bookstores have taken on a new life as centers of resistance to the Trump administration. Besides hawking George Orwells 1984, they are handing out lawmakers contact information and hosting events to gather protesters.
There are also some defections from the opposing camp. The @Trump_Regrets Twitter account has amplified the second thoughts of people who once supported the Republican president.
I voted for you but youre still acting like a baby, one wrote.
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Photo Credit Wong Maye-E and Shizuo Kambayashi/Associated Press
6. The police in Malaysia detained a woman holding Vietnamese travel documents and were looking for other suspects in what appears to have been a lethal poison attack on the half brother of North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un, at the Kuala Lumpur airport.
The brother, Kim Jong-nam, had pleaded for his life in a letter to the leader in 2012, but a South Korean official said there had been a standing order for his assassination since Kim Jong-un took power in 2011. Researchers say Mr. Kim has ordered more than 300 executions.
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Photo Credit Getty Images
7. For the second straight year, traffic deaths were up in the United States.
Fatalities increased 6 percent to 40,200 in 2016, according to preliminary estimates from the nonprofit National Safety Council. If the estimates are confirmed, it would be the deadliest year since 2007.
Theres no single cause for the increase, but activists have pointed to more lenient enforcement of traffic safety laws and increasing numbers of distracted drivers.
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Photo Credit Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
8. When all eyes were on her, she didnt decide to make herself more palatable to white viewers. Instead, she let her imagination serve her goals, her child and her community.
Thats from one of our most popular pieces today, an essay on what Beyonc won at the Grammys, even as she lost out on Best Album to Adele.
Black people who do transgressive or radical work must redefine and reimagine what winning is in a white supremacist capitalist culture, the author, the Atlanta-based writer Myles E. Johnson, argues.
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Photo Credit Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times
9. Its never been more appropriate to say Bon apptit.
Our food editors bring you a next-generation cookbook by Melissa Clark on the new essentials of French cooking, filled with step-by-step video instructions, historical background and practical tips and techniques.
Shell help you master 10 classic dishes, from a morning omelet to an evening souffl.
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Photo Credit Daniel Leal-Olivas/Agence France-Presse Getty Images
10. Finally, in the category of strange world history: As Europe teetered on the brink of World War II, Winston Churchill was preoccupied with the question of whether we are alone in the universe.
In a newly discovered 1939 essay, he argued that humans arent all that special: I, for one, am not so immensely impressed by the success we are making of our civilization here that I am prepared to think we are the only spot in this immense universe which contains living, thinking creatures.
Have an excellent night, and as The X-Files would say: The truth is out there.
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