memeorandum: Trump officials move to relax rules on killing birds (Washington Post)

11:45 AM ET, November 27, 2020

Top Items:

Rory Carroll / The Guardian:

‘Mini desk. Tiny hands. Small soul’: Trump mocked for giving speech at little table … Play Video — For a US president obsessed by size - his hands, his wealth, his crowds - Donald Trump made something of a bold U-turn on Thursday night by addressing the country from a desk seemingly designed for a leprechaun.

Discussion: Breitbart and WHYY

CNN:

'I'm the President of the United States!': Trump flips out on reporter - CNN Video — President Trump condemned a reporter after being asked if he would concede the election if the Electoral College votes for Joe Biden.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Algemeiner.com, CBS Pittsburgh, Associated Press, Fox News, TheGrio, IJR, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Intellectualist

Nick Visser / HuffPost:

Unthankful Trump Refuses To Say If He Will Attend Biden Inauguration — “It's going to be a very hard thing to concede,” the president said in combative remarks between a bevy of falsehoods. — President Donald Trump refused on Thanksgiving to say if he will attend President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration …

Discussion: CNN, Business Insider, The Daily Beast and Toledo Blade

Josh Dawsey / Washington Post:
Trump commits to stepping down if electoral college votes for Biden

Discussion: Press Association, Fox News, New York Times, TheBlaze, The Week, CNN, Common Dreams, Alternet.org, Politico, NBC News, Raw Story, UPI and Bloomberg

Josephine Harvey / HuffPost:
Trump Flips Out At Reporter: 'Don't Ever Talk To The President That Way'

Discussion: Conservative News Today, The Root, TheGrio, The Daily Caller, Business Insider and Althouse

Charlie Nash / Mediaite:
'Don't Ever Talk to the President That Way': Trump Snaps at ‘Lightweight’ Reporter During Wild Thanksgiving Press Conference

Discussion: Townhall and Raw Story

Jill Colvin / Associated Press:
Angry Trump promises rally in battleground state of Georgia

Discussion: New York Post, The Daily Caller, Fox News, Breitbart, Al Jazeera, Washington Times, Election Law Blog, Portside, Digby's Hullabaloo and Politico

Reuters:
Donald Trump says he will leave White House if electoral college votes for Joe Biden

Discussion: The Guardian, Mediaite, Raw Story, Reuters, Deadline, Washington Times, Daily Kos and New York Post

Joseph Choi / The Hill:
Trump says he'll leave White House if Biden declared winner of Electoral College

Discussion: RedState, CNBC, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, TASS, Fortune, POLITICUSUSA, Associated Press and Washington Examiner

New York Times:

Live Updates: Iran's Top Nuclear Scientist Killed in Attack, State Media Say — The scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was seen as the force behind Iran's nuclear weapons program. News reports in Iran say he died after being attacked in a vehicle. — RIGHT NOW Iran's state media say doctors failed …

Discussion: Tasnim News Agency, CBS News, Forbes, Balloon Juice and UPI

Jon Gambrell / Associated Press:

Iran scientist linked to military nuclear program killed — DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian scientist that Israel alleged led the Islamic Republic's military nuclear program until its disbanding in the early 2000s was killed in a targeted attack that saw gunmen use explosives …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Middle East Eye, Associated Press and WTOP

The Times of Israel:

Alleged head of Iran's nuclear weapons program is assassinated near Tehran — Mohsen Fakhrizadeh's car bombed and shot at; blaming ‘Zionists,’ adviser to Khamenei vows to ‘descend like lightning on killers’; scientist has been called ‘father of Iranian bomb’

Discussion: Bloomberg, Breitbart, Townhall, NPR, Algemeiner.com, Mediaite, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, New York Post and Meduza.io

Washington Post:

Prominent Iranian nuclear scientist killed in attack outside Tehran — ISTANBUL — A prominent Iranian nuclear scientist was who was seen as a driving force behind Tehran's disbanded effort to build a nuclear weapon was killed Friday during an attack east of Tehran, according to Iran's foreign minister.

Will Wilkinson / New York Times:

Why Did So Many Americans Vote for Trump? — To the dismay of Democrats, the president's strategy of ignoring the pandemic mostly worked for Republicans. — President Trump's disastrous mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic probably cost him re-election.

Discussion: Associated Press, American Thinker and Wall Street Journal

Karen Weise / New York Times:

Pushed by Pandemic, Amazon Goes on a Hiring Spree Without Equal — The company has added 427,300 employees in 10 months, bringing its global work force to more than 1.2 million. — SEATTLE — Amazon has embarked on an extraordinary hiring binge this year, vacuuming up an average of 1,400 …

Discussion: The Hill, The Verge and Al Jazeera, more at Techmeme »

Washington Post:

Trump officials move to relax rules on killing birds — Overhaul of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act would not hold firms liable for ‘incidentally’ causing scores of bird deaths — The Trump administration published an analysis Friday finding that its rule easing companies' liability …

Allyson Waller / New York Times:

U.S. Border Agency Settles With 2 Americans Detained for Speaking Spanish — In a video of the 2018 incident in Havre, Mont., a Border Patrol agent is heard telling the two American women he detains that speaking Spanish in the small city is “very unheard-of.”

Ken Dilanian / NBC News:

When he leaves office, can ex-President Trump be trusted with America's national security secrets? … WASHINGTON — When David Priess was a CIA officer, he traveled to Houston, he recalls, to brief former President George H.W. Bush on classified developments in the Middle East.

Discussion: Alternet.org

Vivian Salama / CNN:
Biden to face test over access to sensitive information as he inherits Trump's secret server

Discussion: emptywheel, Washington Post, Raw Story, USA Today, Townhall, POLITICUSUSA, The National Interest, Al Jazeera, The Gateway Pundit and Politico

Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal:

Next Step in Government Data Tracking is the Internet of Things — U.S. Air Force experiments with monitoring peripherals—from autos to fitness trackers — WASHINGTON—U. S. government agencies from the military to law enforcement have been buying up mobile-phone data from the private sector …

Daniel Boffey / The Guardian:

EU to use Magnitsky-style law to impose sanctions on human rights abusers … The EU will take on powers to freeze assets and impose travel bans on individuals involved in human rights abuses from next month, after the bloc's member states provisionally approved a European Magnitsky Act.

Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:

‘Tokenized’: Inside Black Workers' Struggles at the King of Crypto Start-Ups — Coinbase, the most valuable U.S. cryptocurrency company, has faced many internal complaints about discriminatory treatment. — SAN FRANCISCO — One by one, they left. Some quit. Others were fired. All were Black.

more at Techmeme »

CBS News:

Former director of U.S. cyber agency Chris Krebs not “necessarily surprised” by firing — See the interview with the man President Trump ousted after he said the election was secure, Sunday night on 60 Minutes. — Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Midnight Ruling Exposes Rifts at a Supreme Court Transformed by Trump — The justices issued six opinions, several of them unusually bitter, in upholding challenges from churches and synagogues to state pandemic restrictions on religious services. — WASHINGTON — A few minutes before midnight …

Discussion: Israpundit, Marginal REVOLUTION, VICE, Washington Post and Gothamist

Reuters:
Cuomo calls U.S. Supreme Court's religious gatherings ruling ‘irrelevant’

Discussion: Business Insider, Cyprus Mail, CNN, Algemeiner.com and NBC 6 South Florida

New York Post:
Cuomo calls Supreme Court church ruling ‘irrelevant’ despite decision

Discussion: Conservative News Today, Breitbart, Wall Street Journal, LifeNews.com and New York Times

Jack Stubbs / Reuters:

Exclusive: Suspected North Korean hackers targeted COVID vaccine maker AstraZeneca - sources — LONDON (Reuters) - Suspected North Korean hackers have tried to break into the systems of British drugmaker AstraZeneca in recent weeks, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters …

Discussion: Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller and New York Post, more at Techmeme »