nightly brief

Top CNS stories for today including Rick Gates testified that his ex-boss and former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort claimed to have told an FBI investigator the truth; The New York City Council passed a package of bills that made it first major city in the U.S. on Wednesday to put a cap on new vehicles for hire, like Uber and Lyft; A Florida newspaper is facing a possible contempt charge after publishing details that were meant to be redacted in a report about a school district’s examination of the Parkland school shooting suspect, and more.

Top CNS stories for today including President Donald Trump’s name has been mostly absent from the trial of Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, but that changed on Tuesday; In addition to primary elections in other states Tuesday, an underdog Democrat in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio, has a chance to paint a Republican stronghold blue in a special election that is seen as a clear referendum on President Trump’s policies; The Fourth Circuit revoked construction permits for a natural gas pipeline that environmentalists and locals say will harm endangered species and impact scenic views on federally protected lands, and more.

Top CNS stories for today including Rick Gates, considered the government’s star witness in the prosecution of Paul Manafort, began testifying Monday afternoon against the former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump; The president signed an executive order restoring nuclear-related sanctions on Iran that the Obama administration had suspended as part of the landmark Iran nuclear deal; Current goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions might not be enough to curb global warming, according to a new study Monday indicating we’re headed for a domino effect that could speed up the warming process by four to five degrees and cause sea levels to rise, and more.

Top CNS stories for today including accountant Cindy LaPorta, the first witness granted immunity from prosecution to testify at the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, conceding possible wrong-doing; earlier, a former Manafort tax preparer, Philip Ayliff, said he and his firm received multiple emails from the former Trump campaign chairman and his business associate, Rick Gates, assuring them they had no foreign bank accounts; hundreds of fathers are on a hunger strike and their sons are staging their own action at the Karnes immigration Detention Center in Texas, “as a last resort to implore U.S. officials to expedite their cases”; defending a decision by American regulators to deviate from cancer-risk assessment guidelines in evaluating the controversial active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer, a Canadian toxicologist testifies that the guidelines aren’t the “Ten Commandments”; police announce that a man suspected of killing George H.W. Bush’s former doctor to avenge his mother’s death on an operating table 20 years ago was found dead of an apparent suicide; the socialist government in Spain wants to remove Franco’s remains from the Valley of the Fallen mausoleum, and more.

Top CNS stories for today including Paul Manafort’s accountant saying while she handled his finances extensively for seven years, the former Trump campaign chairman never told her about the numerous offshore accounts; she later went on to say Manafort was in serious financial trouble after his long-time patrons in Ukraine were driven from power; the Trump administration formally proposes rolling back Obama-era vehicle emissions and fuel economy standards; a Silicon Valley company sues Walmart for $2 billion , claiming the world’s largest retailer stole its trade secrets on “freshness management” technology; voters across Tennessee will cast ballots Thursday in a primary election to determine the candidates for an open U.S. Senate seat and the governor’s office; despite fierce opposition from environmental groups over potential harm to the endangered dugong, a federal judge rules that a military base the U.S. government plans to build in Okinawa, Japan, can move forward, and more.

Top CNS stories for today including a prosecutor at the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort revealing that Richard Gates, Manafort’s former business associate, might not be called to testify; despite U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III’s frequent reminders that it isn’t a crime to be rich, prosecutors at the trial of Paul Manafort seek to highlight the lavish spending habits of President Trump’s former campaign manager; a federal judge from New York nominated to a seat on the Second Circuit touts his experience on the bench and commitment to precedent in a smooth nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee; the Ninth Circuit hands the Trump administration a legal defeat, ruling the Justice Department does not have the authority to withhold federal grant money from sanctuary cities; belonging to an endangered species with fewer than 10,000 left in the wild, newborn red panda twins Loofah and Doofah made their debut Tuesday at an upstate New York zoo, and more.

Top CNS stories for today including the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort opening with prosecutors working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller accusing the one-time, high-flying political consultant with putting “himself and his money above the law” while flouting tax and banking regulations; the D.C. Circuit rules a regional transit system can continue to limit advertisemets if they violate the organization’s policy against advocating religious or political beliefs; Senators voiced their frustrations with the Trump administration’s efforts to reunite families separated at the border; slightly cooler temperatures and slackening winds helped firefighters in California over the weekend, though the nearly 20 wildfires charring the Golden State may be just the beginning of a long, brutal and deadly fire season; the Second Circuit rules Vermont does not trample the First Amendment by hinging public financing of political candidates on their adherence to certain rules; Italy reels from racist attacks, rancorous politics, and more.

Top CNS stories for today including advocates for dispensing with partisan gerrymandering feeling a renewed sense of purpose in North Carolina and in statehouses across the country; the long-awaited trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is now just hours away; Sen, Rand Paul announces he will support Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh despite misgivings about the judge’s views on surveillance and privacy issues; wildlife advocates bring a lawsuit to ensure federal protection of the scarlet macaw; slightly cooler temperatures and slackening winds helped firefighters in California over the weekend, though the nearly 20 wildfires charring the Golden State may be just the beginning of a long, brutal and deadly fire season; lawyers in Serbia go on strike to protest the weekend killing of a prominent defense lawyer who represented former President Slobodan Milosevic and mafia figures, and more.

Top CNS stories for today including Special Counsel Robert Mueller filing a list of 35 potential witnesses for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s trial on fraud and conspiracy charges next week; U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill reveals Russian hackers attempted to infiltrate her office network last year; a federal judge says he likely won’t grant a gag order against Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing former porn star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against President Donald Trump; a development boom is transforming Inglewood, California; the federal government did not meet a court-ordered deadline to reunite all families with children over age five that were separated at the southwest border under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy; a German court ruled Friday that authorities must pay a farmer nearly $904,000 for a bronze horse’s head dating back to Roman times that was found on his land, and more.

Top CNS stories for today including a federal judge ruling Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross may have added the citizenship question to the 2020 census for discriminatory reasons; records from the bankruptcy proceedings of Attorney Michael Avenatti will be sealed at his request; the world’s smallest and most endangered porpoise, often caught in gillnets by commercial fisherman, are given another chance at survival as a court orders the Trump administration ban seafood from countries where the net is still used; the first systemic analysis of global marine wilderness finds only a small fraction of the world’s oceans can still be classified as wilderness; a Pew survey finds Americans are generally supportive of gene editing; meanwhile, a new survey finds most voters in California care about the environment and want the same from their next governor, and more.

Top CNS stories for today including a federal judge rejecting President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to block a lawsuit alleging he is violating the Constitution by continuing to do business with foreign governments; prosecutors say they have four to six terabytes of data – more than 1.5 million files – ready to turn over to defense counsel for Mariia Butina, whom the government has accused of unlawfully operating as a Russian foreign agent; more than two dozen potential jurors have been excused from serving during former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s bank and tax fraud trial in Virginia; Montana’s governor claims in federal court that an Internal Revenue Service decision to abandon disclosure requirements for major donors to dark money groups could result in corporate and foreign donors influencing future elections; the federal government officially lists the coastal areas surrounding the Hawaiian Islands as a protected, critical habitat for the endangered population of false killer whales; the Pew Research Center reports Americans are sharply divided along party lines when it comes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the European Union’s top court rules that a series of new biotechnology breeding techniques should fall under the EU’s rules of safety checks and labeling restricting genetically modified organisms, and more.

Top CNS stories for today including a new study showing President Donald Trump’s plan for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border presents a plethora of concerns as relate to animal life; a prosecutor with special counsel Robert Mueller’s office says the team does not plan to introduce any evidence at trial in September related to the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with the Russian effort to disrupt the 2016 election; House Republicans begin to act on calls for congressional action in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last month holding states can collect sales tax from out-of-state sellers that do business within their borders; greenlighting partial funding for a series of dams that would be the largest built in California in decades, state regulators dish out over $2.5 billion for new water infrastructure projects; the battle for the Republican nomination for governor of Georgia ends Tuesday as voters head to the polls to decide between Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Secretary of State Brian Kemp; in an apparent about-face on Great Britain’s long-held opposition to the death penalty, the Tory government is planning to extradite two alleged Islamic State fighters to the United States, where they could face execution, and more.

Top CNS stories for today including President Donald Trump’s embattled former attorney Michael Cohen waiving attorney-client privilege over 12 audio files that prosecutors seized on Friday; the Trump administration revealing it is looking into pulling the security clearances of prominent Trump critics including former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey, and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, among others; a federal judge grants immunity to five witnesses, all of them in the finance industry, scheduled to testify at the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort; the third largest wildfire in Colorado history devastated Forbes Park, a small gated community in rural Costilla County populated by retirees and vacationers. Two weeks later, Team Rubicon, a veteran-run nonprofit response team remained on the ground to clear charred century-old trees off dirt roads so residents can start putting their lives back together; in their their first debate of the 2018 midterm season,  incumbent Democratic Seante Tim Kaine and insurgent against Republican candidate Corey Stewart devoted most of their energies Saturday to sparring over policies of the Trump administration, and more.