- Woah! President Donald Trump reportedly wanted to increase America’s nuclear arsenal by nearly tenfold. During the same meeting, Trump also expressed a desire to increase U.S. troop numbers and military equipment [NBC News].
- North Korean hackers reportedly targeted U.S. power companies recently with spearphishing emails, designed to download malware into their networks [NBC News].
- The U.S. military flew bombers over the Korean peninsula on Tuesday [Reuters].
- Republicans in Washington are worried Steve Bannon‘s effort to recruit hardline challengers to primary sitting Republican Senators could put the GOP’s majority in Congress at risk [The Hill].
- Senate Democrats are worried Russia is poised to meddle in the upcoming 2018 election, which could put their chances of breaking the GOP majority in jeopardy [Politico].
- Trump confidant Carter Page says he will not cooperate with any requests to testify before Congress as part of the Russia probe. A friend of Page says he plans to plead the Fifth Amendment if he’s called before an investigative panel [Politico].
- President Donald Trump is poised to unveil proposals for modifying the NAFTA agreement that could put efforts to update the treaty in jeopardy [Axios].
- Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is coming under increasing scrutiny for mixing official trips with political activities. Zinke attended two fundraisers while traveling on official government business shortly after he took over the Interior Department [Politico].
- President Donald Trump has been in office for 263 days during which time he made more than 1,300 false or misleading statements. That averages out to nearly five per day [Washington Post].
- A new nationwide poll finds 58% of Americans support stricter gun laws following the massacre in Las Vegas [Politico].
- Israel hackers who got inside the servers of Russian cyber security company Kaspersky discovered evidence that the company may have breached the NSA, then warned the U.S. about the possible intrusion. The U.S. has since warned government agencies to stop using Kaspersky products [Washington Post].
- The toll from the Northern California wildfires continues to rise. 17 people have died, and 2,000 structures have been destroyed [Los Angeles Times].
- Many sick people in Puerto Rico are in “mortal peril” because of the lack of electricity and supplies for medical care [New York Times].
- The NFL is considering a rule change that would require players to stand at attention during the national anthem, but there is no penalty for those who do not stand [Bleacher Report].
On this day in history:
- 1906 – San Francisco public school board sparks a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.
- 1910 – Former President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. President to fly in an airplane.
- 1968 – NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham on board.
- 1975 – Saturday Night Live debuts with George Carlin as host and musicians Janis Ian and Billy Preston.
- 1986 – President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavik, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.
- 2002 – Congress gave President George W. Bush authorization for using military force against Iraq.
