Everyone’s been using Russia for opposition research
New evidence reveals Russian lawyer also met with Clinton campaign consultant
Natalia Veselnitskaya Associated Press/Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko
RUSSIA: Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, whose meetings with Donald Trump Jr. were dissected ad nauseum this summer, met before and after those meetings with Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson. At the time, Simpson was being paid by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee—suggesting, when it comes to opposition research, everyone was doing it, or trying to.
Paradise Papers, Panama Papers, blah, blah, blah … the leak of financial records should have a source, writes The Wall Street Journal’s Holman Jenkins, as it’s the only way to know what it all means. The Washington Post goes at length to hammer the Trump connections, noting in the seventh paragraph (and for the second time in a story), “There is, however, no evidence that any of the holdings were illegal.” Under pressure from a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, U.S. State Department holdovers are reportedly now upset Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wants fast action on a backlog of 13,000 Freedom of Information Act requests from the Obama era, which may include releasing more Hillary Clinton emails.SAUDI ARABIA: Authorities moved to freeze about 1,200 bank accounts connected to 60 princes arrested in the weekend shakeup by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and nationalize any wealth acquired through corruption. The move could add up to $800 billion to the kingdom’s depleted coffers.
Prince Mohammed is “much more a numbers cruncher than a Quran thumper,” writes columnist Thomas Friedman, but “reform” under someone already given to autocratic rule is questionable.
LEBANON: Once occupied by Iranian-backed Syria, Lebanon now appears to be hostage to Saudi Arabia.
SYRIA: Wounded Syrians, carried on donkeys through the pitch-black night, can be seen in the beam of a searchlight held by their unlikely saviors—Israeli soldiers. Israeli Defense Forces ferry most wounded Syrians in the Golan Heights border region to Galilee for medical treatment, wanting to win local Syrian fighters as a buffer against Iranian and Hezbollah encroachment.
INDIA: Hindu nationalists have ordered 10 Protestant churches in Tamil Nadu to stop holding worship services, and ordered another 20 churches closed in what Christians leaders call “a well-planned conspiracy against the Christian community.”
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Could the country’s peat bogs be a carbon time bomb waiting to explode on climate change progress?
ZIMBABWE: President Robert Mugabe sacked his long-standing vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, saying he was plotting to seize power. The move clears the way for the 93-year-old dictator’s wife, Grace, to take power upon Mugabe’s death.
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