-Written by Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey)
Today in 5 Lines
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During a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, President Trump said he doesn’t have to “prepare very much” for the upcoming meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Politico reported earlier Thursday that National-Security Adviser John Bolton has not yet convened a meeting to discuss the June 12 summit.
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Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani said Stormy Daniels’s claim that she had an affair with Trump in 2006 isn’t credible because she is a porn actress. “I’m sorry, I don’t respect a porn star the way I respect a career woman or a woman of substance,” he said.
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Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt reportedly had his security detail assist him with personal errands, including tracking down his favorite lotion and picking up his dry cleaning.
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Suicide rates have increased in 49 states in the last two decades, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The State Department evacuated “a number of individuals” working in the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou, China, after they showed health symptoms similar to what diplomats experienced in Cuba.
Today on The Atlantic
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Can Climate Change Be Stopped?: A team of Harvard scientists announced that they will be able to suck carbon-dioxide pollution out of the atmosphere—and turn it into gasoline—by 2021. (Robinson Meyer)
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‘The Man Who Would Be King’: Several of Trump’s advisers have recently argued that it would be legal for Trump to pardon himself—or order that his investigators be prosecuted. This, writes Adam Serwer, “is the absurd logic of a monarchical system, not a democratic one.”
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If You See Something, Say Something: California Representative Eric Swalwell is proposing a new bill this week that would require campaigns to tell the FBI if any foreign power attempts to contact them with “dirt” on their political opponents.
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The Tipping Point: A new study found that minority groups can be effective at changing the minds of those in the majority—as long as they make up 25 percent of the total population. (Ed Yong)