Bedugul Coffee: Monday Morning Briefing: Trump says his son sought information on Clinton from Russians in 2016

Highlights

Trump acknowledged that his son met with Russians in 2016 at Trump Tower to get information on his election opponent Hillary Clinton, saying it was “totally legal” and “done all the time in politics.”

At least 40 people were shot in Chicago over the weekend during the seven hours from midnight Saturday to early Sunday morning, with four fatalities, city police said on Sunday, a stark violent streak in a city where authorities say gun violence has been decreasing this year.

Temperatures in Portugal, at the crest of a European heatwave, began to ease from near record levels on Sunday, but a forest fire raged for a third day in the south, battled by 800 firefighters and 12 aircraft.

World

Rescue workers found scenes of destruction across the north of Indonesia’s resort island of Lombok after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake killed at least 91 people and prompted an exodus of tourists rattled by the second powerful quake in a week.

Deeply unpopular Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro looked keen to project himself as fully in charge of the crisis-ridden military, long a powerbroker, when he addressed its National Guard on Saturday.

Prospects faded over the weekend for a bill that would legalize abortion in Argentina, when an opposition senator said she had changed her mind and would vote against the measure when it is brought to the floor on Wednesday.

Commentary: Encouraging new poll results – and a populist foundation known as The Movement that former Trump adviser Steve Bannon is setting up in Brussels – are giving Europe's notoriously fractious and undisciplined far-right parties a fresh sense of purpose. According to columnist John Lloyd, Bannon is pursuing “a long-term dream” to counter the influence of George Soros and “to unite the parties of the far right in Europe before next year’s European elections.”

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5:00 AM - AUG 06, 2018

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