Trump tweets ... China ... Germany ... travel ban ... birth rate

Friday, June 30, 2017

It's Fourth of July weekend!! Be careful out there. Some popular fireworks have been recalled after unintended explosions. Here's what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door.

By AJ Willingham

1. Trump tweets

So, the President tweeted. Donald Trump went on a weird rant Thursday morning against MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski and her partner and co-host Joe Scarborough, calling her "crazy," him "psycho" and saying he rejected both of them for an interview while Brzezinski was "bleeding badly" from a facelift.

A lot of people, including top GOP lawmakers, found the tweets questionable at best, but Melania Trump and Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders both stood by them, with the first lady's spokesman saying the President "will punch back 10 times harder" when insulted.

The President and the MSNBC hosts obviously have a difficult relationship, but the flap comes at an especially inopportune time for the administration: After all, it's still trying to court GOP senators to get the health care bill passed.

2. China

The US and China might be heading for another rough patch after relatively cordial relations. The Trump administration has announced plans to go ahead with a $1.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan originally signed by the Obama administration. It was temporarily shelved because the deal was likely to rankle China (which sees Taiwan as a rogue province), and Trump was looking to build stronger ties with the country. The sale came on the same day that new sanctions were announced on China's Bank of Dandong, which the US accuses of supporting illegal North Korean financial activity.

3. Germany

German lawmakers voted by a wide margin to legalize same-sex marriage, a landmark decision that came just days after Chancellor Angela Merkel dropped her longstanding opposition to a free vote on the issue (she did, however, still vote "no"). The bill, which is likely to be approved German legislators, allows same-sex couples to marry and jointly adopt children. Germany would become one of 20 or so countries where same-sex marriage is legal.

4. Travel ban

The travel ban is back in effect, which means new court orders opposing it are, too. Less than an hour before the ban was slated to start, Hawaii filed an emergency motion. Its issue? The part of the ban that defines a "bona fide relationship" that would allow people from six banned countries into the US. Under the current parameters, sons- and daughters-in-law and the betrothed are "bona fide," but grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins aren't.

5. US birth rate

The US birth rate has hit a record low. With fewer than 4 million births last year, the number of babies squealing from coast to coast is the lowest it's ever been, a government report finds. The drop hinges, at least in part, on another new record low -- in teen births. Those dropped 9% last year, compared with 2015. It continues a long-term trend that's seen the birth rate among teens drop 67% since 1991. No surprise: It's "access ... and use of contraceptives that has really led to these kind of changes," one expert said. On the flip side, there's been an uptick in births to older moms, with 4% more babies born last year to women ages 40 to 44.

Forward

Breakfast Browse

People are talking about these. Read up. Join in.

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The couple was trying to get famous by pulling off dangerous pranks.

Greta Van Susteren is out at MSNBC after only six months
The former Fox News host has had some bad luck, job-wise.

One-bedroom 'Fixer Upper' house goes on market for $950,000
To be clear, it's already been fixer-uppered -- by the HGTV show.

Instagram rolls out new tools to scrub mean comments and spam
Still waiting for the tool that turns us all into stylish, latte-sipping yogis.

"Copy editors save our buts"
The message on a sign carried by a New York Times employee protesting
plans to cut the paper's editing staff

And finally ...

Grab your headphones
Did you know hummingbirds snore? They do! And they're NOT quiet about it. (Click to view)

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