-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)
Snapshot
What We’re Reading
Why Hasn’t Bolton Done More to Prepare Trump?: Because the national-security adviser wants talks with North Korea to fail, argues Daniel Larison. (The American Conservative)
Spicer Opens Up: In an interview with Rolling Stone, former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer shares his private regrets—and maintains that he never actually hid in a bush. (Tessa Stuart)
Separation Anxiety: After being separated from his father at the U.S.-Mexico border, five-year-old José was put into transitional foster care in Michigan: “Since his arrival in Michigan, family members said, a day has not gone by when the boy has failed to ask in Spanish, ‘When will I see my papa?’” (Miriam Jordan, The New York Times)
A New AG?: Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro has reportedly been telling President Trump’s aides and advisers for 18 months that she’s interested in replacing Jeff Sessions as attorney general. (Eliana Johnson and Andrew Restuccia, Politico)
Visualized
Welcome to the Millennial Moment: The Millennial generation accounts for a quarter of the world’s population. Here’s where they live—and what they do. (Cale Tilford, Financial Times)
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