The Fitness Magazine: Your Presidential Daily Brief: Trump Berates 'Fake News'

IMPORTANT

February 17, 2017

Mourners in Pakistan's Sindh province gather around the coffin of a 13-year-old boy killed in yesterday's attack on a Sufi shrine. Source: Getty

President Rips Media, Courts in Press Conference

"I'm not ranting and raving. I love this." So said President Donald Trump, who yesterday convened reporters to introduce lawyer Alexander Acosta as his new labor secretary nominee, but blasted journalists for "fake news" linking him to Russia and a "bad court" for derailing his travel ban. He also dismissed a question about bomb threats against Jewish centers as "insulting" and told a Black reporter to "set up a meeting" for him with the Congressional Black Caucus. Meanwhile, the Justice Department announced a new executive order on immigration to be signed next week.

Sources: BBC, NYT, WSJ (sub)

Pakistan Shuts Afghan Border Crossings After Shrine Attack

They're taking no chances. At least 75 people died yesterday and 150 were injured when a bombing, claimed by ISIS, devastated a Sufi shrine in Sindh province. It was the fifth attack in Pakistan this week, with 20 children reportedly among the dead. Overnight, authorities raided suspected militant hideouts, arresting 47 people and killing another 39, while two major border crossings into Afghanistan were closed as Pakistan's government demanded that Kabul extradite 76 other terror suspects. Three days of mourning have commenced in Sindh, and local shrines have been closed temporarily.

Sources: Al Jazeera, The Guardian

Robert Harward Turns Down Security Adviser Job

Flynn's an awkward act to follow. Retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward was chosen to succeed disgraced national security adviser Mike Flynn - but has turned down the job. It's a setback for the White House, which President Trump yesterday defended as "a fine-tuned machine." The administration may now turn to acting adviser Keith Kellogg or sex-scandal tainted former general David Petraeus, as reports surface that Flynn not only lied to the vice president about his pre-inauguration Russian diplomatic calls, but to the FBI, which would be a felony offense.

Sources: Politico, WSJ (sub), BBC, Washington Post

Samsung Chief Arrested in Presidential Scandal

The heat is on. Samsung de-facto chief Lee Jae-yong, the 48-year-old heir to South Korea's biggest family fortune, was formally arrested over his alleged role in the country's ongoing influence-peddling scandal. It's already led to the December impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, and continues to rock the country's oligarchic upper echelons. Prosecutors now have ten days to officially indict Lee - whose company was hoping for a quieter new year following last year's exploding Note 7 phone scandal, but may now need to stabilize a volatile leadership vacuum.

Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg, FT (sub)

Briefly

Know This: The whaling industry in Iceland is seeing more demand for cetacean cuisine from restaurants that cater to tourists. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is calling on those who oppose Brexit to "rise up" and stop it. And American wrestler Sam Adonis is using a Trump voter persona to become Mexico's biggest wrestling villain.

Try This: Feeling presidential after a week of briefings? Prove it with the PDB quiz.

Talk to Us: We want your feedback on the Presidential Daily Brief - what you think we're doing right and what we should be doing differently. Send us an email at pdbrief@ozy.com.

Sponsored by: Mercedes-Benz

The Instagram Travel Guide To ... Austin

Love a good sleeve tattoo? Then Austin might be the place to spend your Presidents Day weekend. If you're uncertain about where to go, don't be. OZY asked the local Instagram community to weigh in on the best places to eat, drink, shop, sightsee and #keepaustinweird.

Sources: OZY

INTRIGUING

Legislation Urges Texans to Reject Ersatz Flag Emoji

Hey, they're both red, white and blue. There is no commonly available Texas flag emoji, so some Texans use the Chilean flag, which has the same color scheme and single star but replaces the Lone Star State's vertical blue stripe with a blue square. That's a red line for Texas state Rep. Tom Oliverson, who's introduced legislation encouraging Texans to desist - and "hereby reject the notion that the Chilean flag, although it is a nice flag, can in any way compare to or be substituted for the official state flag of Texas."

Sources: Dallas Morning News, Mashable, Houston Chronicle

Emissions Infamy Is Up in the Air

Breathe it and weep. While looking at emissions levels country by country puts China squarely ahead of the U.S., some scientists advocate a different standard: Household consumption, which makes Americans the world's worst polluters again, with levels ten times higher than that of your average Chinese citizen. While globalization means companies unable to pollute at home may open a factory elsewhere, consumption figures give individuals a sense of control over their carbon footprint - and spotlight supply chains, which account for about 80 percent of the emissions each of us is responsible for.

Sources: OZY

Clues to Life Found on Dwarf Planet

Is that how we got here? Scientists and researchers believe they have discovered organic compounds on the surface of Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. Ceres has been monitored, mapped and inspected by the Dawn spacecraft since 2015, with studies previously finding evidence of salt, ammonia, water ice and carbonates. Yet this discovery marks the first unambiguous detection of organic molecules naturally formed on an asteroid, suggesting space rocks may have been delivery systems for life's building blocks throughout the universe - even to primordial Earth.

Sources: Popular Mechanics, The Verge

Diverse Audiences Grooving on Black TV Shows

They're being judged by the content and their characters. A new Nielsen study has revealed that non-Black viewers make up more than 50 percent of the average audience for shows with mostly Black casts like Black-ish, How To Get Away With Murder and Atlanta. It's a departure from past trends, when few shows with Black casts saw audience crossover, and those that did weren't nearly as sharp or political as the current crop. Nielsen's Andrew McCaskill notes that this could push diversity on TV - and push advertisers toward Black shows.

Sources: Shadow and Act, Slate, Ebony

How You Can Support Special Olympians in Austria

Make it a winter wonderland. Crowdfunding platform GoFundMe has launched 500 online campaigns sponsoring various aspects of the Special Olympics - from individual athletes, who need roughly $2,500 each to participate, to the event's organizing committee. Olympians like U.S. snowboarding gold medalist Hannah Teter and superstar American gymnast Simone Biles are supporting the effort, with some campaigning on behalf of specific teams or athletes ahead of this year's event. The Winter Games, scheduled for next month, will gather some 2,700 athletes in Austria to represent 110 home countries.

Sources: Mashable, Special Olympics