Monday morning news: July 16, 2018

Trump meeting with Putin » President Trump is in Helsinki, Finland, today where he’ll meet one-on-one with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It’s the final stop on a weeklong trip that began last Tuesday in Brussels.

On Sunday, Trump told CBS News he’s not setting expectations heading into the meeting with Putin.

TRUMP: Nothing bad’s going to come out of it, and maybe some good will come out. But I go in with low expectations. I’m not going in with high expectations. I don’t really—I can’t tell you what’s going to happen. 

President Trump has said he will discuss Syria, Ukraine, nuclear proliferation, and other topics, including Russian election meddling.

On Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced indictments of 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking into the computer networks of the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign. The charges are part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.

National Security Advisor John Bolton said those charges give President Trump a stronger hand going into the Russia summit.

BOLTON: It shows that the justice system, the Department of Justice, are aware of these Russian efforts at election meddling. I think the president can put this on the table and say this is a serious matter. We need to talk about it. 

President Trump was asked on Sunday if he’ll demand Putin extradite the charged intelligence officers. He said he had not yet considered doing that but later added that he’ll “certainly be asking about it.”

John Bolton said it would be—his words—“pretty silly,” adding that for Trump “to demand something that isn’t going to happen puts the president in a weak position.”

Deadly attack in Kabul » A suicide bomber has killed at least 7 people and wounded 15 others after detonating an explosive vest in Kabul.

A police spokesman said Sunday that the bomber on foot struck outside a government facility. And he added that the death toll is likely to rise.

No one immediately claimed the attack, but the Taliban and an ISIS affiliate regularly strike government targets in the capital and elsewhere across the country.

Last month a suicide bomber struck near the same government facility, killing 12 people and wounding 31 others.

Rep. Ratcliffe says Page testimony differed from Strzok’s » Texas GOP Congressman John Ratcliffe called the Friday testimony of former FBI lawyer Lisa Page enlightening.

Page testified before a House panel behind closed doors about politically charged messages she exchanged with FBI agent Peter Strzok. And Ratcliffe said her answers to lawmakers were not entirely aligned with Strzok’s defiant public testimony one day earlier.

RATCLIFFE: I can tell you that there are significant differences in her testimony from agent Strzok as it relates to these text messages, what some of them meant. And she gave us new information that he either wouldn’t or couldn’t that confirm some of the concerns we have about these investigations and the people involved in running them.

Page is expected to testify again today.

Strzok testified before a pair of House committees in an open session on Thursday. Page and Strzok, who were romantically involved, exchanged numerous anti-Trump text messages while Strzok worked as a key investigator on the Russia probe and the Clinton email investigation.

France wins World Cup title » France and Croatia closed out an exciting World Cup tournament in Russia on Sunday.

AUDIO: The final whistle – France have won the World Cup! (applause)

The final score was 4 to 2.  

France was the second-youngest team in the tournament and the youngest player on that team, 19-year-old Kylian Mbappé made history. He became the first teenager in 60 years to score in a World Cup final.

AUDIO: In for Kylian Mbappe now – Mbappe!!

This was the French team’s second World Cup title. They also won it in 1998.

Four protesters briefly interrupted the match when they ran onto the field. They were believed to be members of an anti-Vladimir Putin activist group. The Russian president looked on from VIP seats. He later took the field to award medals to the players.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: Mary Reichard covers emerging legal issues in the lower courts. This is The World and Everything in It. 

(AP Photo/Marcellus Stein, File) In this July 7, 2017, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for a photo during the G20 summit in Hamburg Germany. 

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