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An anniversary for Robert Mueller; an Ebola outbreak in the DRC.
The Mueller investigation turns 1
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- Today marks the one-year anniversary since special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation began. Oh, what a year it’s been. [ABC News / Lucien Bruggeman]
- Trump honored the occasion in typical fashion: via a tweet with the words “greatest Witch Hunt in American History.” [USA Today / David Jackson]
- To recap, Mueller’s team has so far indicted 19 people and three companies. The special counsel has secured five guilty pleas. [NYT / Mikayla Bouchard]
- Mueller’s been on the job for a year, but the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign began in summer 2016. Back then, few knew about the inquiry, or that it had the ridiculous name of “Crossfire Hurricane.” [NYT / Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, and Nicholas Fandos]
- And the Mueller probe looks far from over. While the public, and president, won’t tolerate an open-ended investigation, the special counsel is moving much faster when it comes to indictments and guilty pleas than previous special investigations — except for Watergate. [FiveThirtyEight / Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux]
- Where the Mueller probe is going and how it ends are the knottier questions to answer. The big one, of course, is whether Trump will sit for an interview with Mueller’s team. And if not, what next? [Washington Post / Matt Zapotosky]
- Mueller’s team may also offer clues as to what leads he’s pursuing. It includes investigators and prosecutors with expertise in financial crimes, cybersecurity, and espionage. [Politico / Josh Gerstein]
- In the meantime, just try to keep up with what happened in the past couple of days: Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani said Mueller told him sitting presidents can’t be indicted, and the Senate Intelligence Committee put out a bipartisan report that confirmed Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 election in order to help Trump win. [Vox / Alex Ward]
Good and bad news for an Ebola outbreak in the DRC
- A case of Ebola has been confirmed in Mbandaka, an urban area in the Democratic Republic of Congo with a population of more than 1 million. [Vox / Julia Belluz]
- This is a troublesome development. Ebola’s presence in a crowded population center increases the risks the disease could spread, and rapidly. Mbandaka sits on the Congo River and is a trading and transport hub. [Guardian / Jason Burke]
- The Ebola outbreak was previously confined to the remote Bikoro region of the DRC. Only three cases of Ebola have been confirmed, but the total number of suspected cases sits at 44. A total of 23 people have died. [Washington Post / Max Bearak]
- But there’s some good news: The medical community is much more equipped to deal with an outbreak of Ebola now than it was in 2014, when the disease began to ravage West Africa. [AP / Saleh Mwanamilongo and Carley Petesch]
- The big reason? A new vaccine. The World Health Organization delivered more than 4,000 doses to the DRC this week. [Vox / Julia Belluz]
- This is the first time the vaccine, rVSV-ZEBOV, will be used during a new Ebola outbreak, but trials showed the vaccine to be extremely effective. It could be a rare, and heartening, public health victory. [Vox / Julia Belluz]
Miscellaneous
- Why won’t the state of California perform a single test that could either condemn a man to death — or exonerate him? [NYT / Nicholas Kristof With Jessia Ma and Stuart A. Thompson]
- A well-known poet’s history of domestic violence and abuse. [The Outline / Rebekah Kirkman]
- A television executive is reportedly pitching a cable show starring Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing porn actress Stormy Daniels, and Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director who lasted 10 days. No thanks? [NYT / Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman]
- Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) suggested Wednesday at a Science Committee hearing that rocks falling into the ocean are contributing to sea level rise. It was one of a few ridiculous climate change-denying theories floated by GOP Congress members. We’d laugh, except for that whole thing where global warming is an existential threat to humanity. [E&E News via Science Magazine / Scott Waldman]
Verbatim
“Every time the pain got bad, I would think some variation of, ‘Oh no, I’m never going to be able to use computers again; I’m not going to be able to hold down a job; I’m not going to be able to earn a living; and I’m going to be in excruciating pain the rest of my life.” Blair Golson, a 38-year-old Californian living with chronic pain who found answers in an unexpected place: pain psychology. [Vox / Brian Resnick]
Watch this:
The US Embassy to Israel has moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Here’s how this sacred city factors into a conflict that’s 70 years old. [YouTube / Christina Thornell and Carlos Waters]
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