Vox Sentences: America isn't sending Mexico its best people

Trump makes a surprise trip to Mexico; Brazil's president was impeached; Britain's prime minister starts planning for Brexit.

Trump crosses the border

MSNBC

• Donald Trump went to Mexico City Wednesday, unexpectedly accepting Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's offer to meet. He was joined by Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions – a tough immigration critic – and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. [Vox / Tara Golshan]
• Trump's newly appointed campaign CEO Stephen Bannon – from Breitbart News – was instrumental in Trump's decision to accept Nieto's offer, arguing the trip would be a welcomed balance to Trump's notably harsher immigration policies. [Washington Post / Robert Costa, Karen DeYoung and Joshua Partlow]
• The rationale behind the trip fit perfectly with Trump's campaign strategy so far: Trump relishes unpredictability, gives a reality show-like twist to what is otherwise a losing campaign, and loves a chance to show off his self-proclaimed deal-making mastery. [Washington Post / Chris Cillizza]
• The meeting was a risky move for Nieto, who currently has a 23 percent approval rating in Mexico – the lowest a Mexican leader has had in the past two decades. Meeting with Trump – a wildly disliked figure in Mexico – could be a lose/lose situation. [Wall Street Journal / David Luhnow]
• Trump gave notably diplomatic remarks after the two leaders met, even calling the president "a friend." And when it came to discussing the United States' right to having a border wall, Trump ultimately said the two did not talk about who would pay. [Los Angeles Times / Noah Bierman, Tracy Wilkinson and Kate Linthicum]
• Shortly after his meeting with Nieto, Trump turns back to the campaign trail, pivoting to a speech meant to clarify his immigration policy. [The Guardian / Ben Jacobs]

Dilma Rousseff out: Brazil's Senate votes for impeachment

Mario Tama/Getty Images

• After a long and tumultuous process, Brazil's Senate finally voted 61-20 to impeach President Dilma Rousseff over allegations that she fudged the numbers on Brazil's deficit problem during her reelection. [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]
• Vice President Michel Temer — who, while a relative political unknown, played a vital role in Rousseff's impeachment proceedings — was sworn in to replace Rousseff as president shortly after, and will likely remain in that position until 2018. [BBC / Daniel Gallas]
• While Temer says he is looking to bring a new era to Brazilian politics, he himself has been linked to corruption charges of his own, with allegations that he asked for the illegal campaign contributions through Brazil's multinational petroleum corporation Petrobras. Temer has denied these accusations. [Wall Street Journal / Jeffrey T. Lewis]
• Many have called Rousseff's impeachment a "coup," replacing an elected left-wing politician with an unelected right-wing official in a congress that has been called a "den of corruption." [Salon / Ben Norton]
• Rousseff's impeachment and controversy over Temer's appointment also plays into a larger story of deep-rooted dysfunction in Brazilian politics — a country with more than two dozen political parties. [The New Yorker / Alex Cuadros​]

Brainstorming about Brexit

Mark Richards/WPA Pool/Getty Images

• Newly appointed British Prime Minister Theresa May called Cabinet ministers together to brainstorm how to move forward with the Brexit referendum. [The New York Times / Stephen Castle]
• May, who herself was not in favor of leaving the European Union, made clear that "Brexit means Brexit" at the beginning of the meeting, charging the Cabinet ministers with finding a successful way to make a full withdrawal; "no second referendum, no attempts to sort of stay in the EU by the back door," May said. [BBC / Chris Mason]
• Although May tepidly spoke against Brexit before the vote, from her remarks Wednesday, it's clear she is playing along — whether it's a tactical political game or true belief in the agenda remains to be seen. [The Guardian / Jackie Ashley]
• Nearly two months after the referendum, this is the first serious planning session. The British government will have to proceed with care to ensure the process doesn't lead to political and economic crisis. [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]
• May also has an administrative problem. Forming a Department for Exiting the EU has taken time to staff and is still not at the numbers it will need to be to detach Britain's economy from the European Union. [The Economist]
• The referendum has already led to rifts in British government, and ultimately the resignation of former Prime Minister David Cameron, whose legacy is now shadowed by the Brexit vote. [Al Jazeera / Alasdair Soussi]

Miscellaneous

• The making of Oliver Stone's Snowden — a biopic about American whistleblower Edward Snowden — involved Russian spy novels Stone paid $1 million for and secret meetings. [The New York Times / Irina Aleksander]
• Iowan Republican state senate candidates have all posted ads in recent weeks. They seem pretty typical: The candidate talks, the shot changes to the candidate with constituents. But there's one consistency that goes past style: The ads seem to have all cast the same group of kids. [Iowa Starting Line / Pat Rynard]
• Ask meat eaters the question "what kind of meat is okay to eat?" and they will usually give an answer about animal intelligence. Now there's a study to figure out what's going on when people defend their eating choices with moral — but sometimes baseless — arguments. [New York Magazine / Jesse Singal]
• The YouTube channel Couch Tomato claims all movies are the same. Their latest comparison: Batman Begins and Richie Rich. [AV Club / Joe Blevins]

Verbatim

• "Last summer, she noticed that (Facebook) had started recommending her patients as friends—and she had no idea why." [Fusion / Kashmir Hill]
• “The American liberal press, in falling over themselves to defend Hillary Clinton, are erecting a demon that is going to put nooses around everyone’s necks as soon as she wins the election, which is almost certainly what she’s going to do,” Assange said in the interview, which was broadcast live Wednesday on Facebook. [Politico / Kelsey Sutton]
• "When I met Jeremy Corbyn he accidentally spat on my friend and proceeded to rub at the spot on the coat where the spit had landed." [Carlotta Rauch via BuzzFeed / Hanna Jewell]

Watch this: Cursive handwriting is dying. But some politicians refuse to accept it.

[YouTube / Libby Nelson and Joss Fong]

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