Libertarian Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) suggested Wednesday that he is considering filibustering President Trump's nomination of Mike Pompeo for secretary of state and Gina Haspel for CIA director, Politico reports. "People complain sometimes about the filibuster, they complain about trying to obstruct," Paul told Politico. "I think the debate over whether or not America is a country in favor of torture or not is an important one. I'm going to do everything I can to block them."
Paul cited Pompeo's support of the Iraq War as well as his backing of enhanced interrogation tactics as reasons for opposition. Of Haspel, Paul said: "My opposition to her is over her direct participation in interrogation and her gleeful enjoyment at the suffering of someone being tortured."
Paul could cause the most problems for Pompeo, as the senator sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where Republicans have just a one-point advantage. If all Democrats on the committee were to also oppose Pompeo's nomination, he would receive an unfavorable committee verdict, although he could still potentially be brought to a Senate floor vote by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Still, not all Democrats might join Paul in opposition: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday he is not "at this point" urging his caucus to oppose Pompeo or Haspel's nominations.
Paul does not serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which would vet Haspel, although Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) does: "Sen. McCain has voiced some misgivings about the CIA appointment," mused Paul to Politico. "If he alone were to say no, it might be enough."
Trump has previously spoken in favor of techniques like waterboarding, vowing on the campaign trail to consider bringing it back along with "a hell of a lot worse." Jeva Lange
British Prime Minister Theresa May has won a vote of confidence among her party with 200 votes in favor and 117 against, BBC reports.
The vote comes just after May said she wouldn't lead her party in 2022's general election, and protects her from immediately being forced out in favor of new leadership. But its "not all comfortable" margin signals a "blow" to May's authority, BBC's Laura Kuenssberg says.
Confidence in May's leadership has dwindled in the past few days as her plan to remove the U.K. from the European Union stalls in Parliament. May tried to have members of Parliament vote on her Brexit plan earlier this week, but she postponed the vote over fears it might fail. Pro-Brexit members from May's Conservative Party then triggered a no-confidence vote against her. If May had lost the vote with a majority, or 158, of Conservatives voting against her, the party would've elected a new leader.
Sensing her party's resistance to her leadership, May told Conservatives earlier that she wouldn't lead them into the country's next general election and may step down as soon as Brexit goes through. May's narrow win on Wednesday signals just how strong that resistance seems to be.
Britain voted more than two years ago to leave the E.U., and lawmakers have since fought over how close to remain with the trading bloc. The U.K. is scheduled to leave the E.U. in March, despite a the country remaining far from reaching a deal to do so. Kathryn Krawczyk
The Great Barrier Reef may not be so doomed after all.
Hundreds of the Australian reef's coral species are blossoming deeper in the ocean than biologists previously thought, a report published by The Royal Society on Tuesday reveals. Growing further from direct sunlight could save these species from coral bleaching caused by climate change and prove essential for their conservation, Science News says.
The world's largest coral reef has been decimated as climate change warms waters and strips corals of their bright colors, killing them. Deeper-growing corals are safer from climate change, but scientists thought only a few species could grow more than 100 feet from the surface. It turns out 195 species can actually grow in the shady, cold depths and not just near the sun, per the study. So when shallow-water corals die off, scientists might be able to "transplant" these "deep ocean corals" and repopulate the surface, Science News writes.
The study was published just two days after another promising reef report. Though bleaching may severely damage of Great Barrier Reef, corals that survived one season tended to tolerate hotter temperatures the following year, a study published Monday in Nature shows. It's not great that any corals are dying, scientists assure, but at least this suggests the strongest ones will live on and repopulate the reef. Kathryn Krawczyk
The House and Senate are finally tackling a big problem happening in their own halls.
The two chambers on Wednesday agreed on a bill to better handle sexual harassment in Congress, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a co-sponsor of the Senate's version of the bill, tells Politico. Other congressional staffers confirmed the news to The Washington Post and CNN.
Following the #MeToo movement's rise late last year, members of Congress started looking inward at the harassment aides and lawmakers had long faced. The reality became particularly clear after former Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) allegedly used taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit, and after he and other lawmakers stepped down after their own sexual harassment scandals.
The House passed its harassment-fighting bill in February, under which lawmakers would be held "personally liable for harassment and discrimination settlements," per Politico. The Senate's latest version only made legislators pay for harassment settlements. Wednesday's compromise agrees on barring legislators from using taxpayer money to settle "harassment and retaliation for harassment claims, but not discrimination," staffers tell Politico.
Opponents of the Senate bill worried accused congressmembers would settle harassment claims as "sex discrimination," per CNN. So Reps. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) and Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.) say they'll craft a new bill to address discrimination, per Politico. The two chambers hope to pass the still-unfinalized bill within the next few days after working out a few more specifics, Blunt says. Kathryn Krawczyk
For Star Wars fans, the new TV show's latest casting news is a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.
After it was reported that the upcoming live-action series The Mandalorian would star Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones), Lucasfilm confirmed the choice on Wednesday and announced seven additional members of the cast, including none other than Werner Herzog. Yes, that Werner Herzog: the 76-year-old German director who might be one of the very last people you'd expect to see cast in a Star Wars project. He's taken some acting roles in the past like in Jack Reacher and had previously been rumored for a part in the series, but while it might have seemed too good (and weird) to be true, it's official now.
Also joining the cast of The Mandalorian is Giancarlo Esposito, best known for playing Gus Fring on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and Carl Weathers, best known for his role as Apollo Creed in the Rocky series. Other members of the cast include Emily Swallow (Supernatural), Gina Carano (Deadpool), Omid Abtahi (American Gods), and Nick Nolte (Affliction).
The Mandalorian is set to follow the adventures of a lone gunfighter, played by Pascal, in the galaxy's outer reaches a few years after the events of 1983's Return of the Jedi. It's currently in production under the stewardship of Jon Favreau (The Jungle Book) and will be an exclusive to the Disney+ streaming service, which launches in late 2019. Brendan Morrow
After Time's person of the year shortlist reminded us all what a decade this year has been, Google is here to hammer that point home even further.
Google on Wednesday released its annual "year in search" list, which takes a look at which topics earned the biggest spike in Google search traffic in 2018 compared to the year before. It reveals that the No. 1 global search trend of the year was the World Cup, which, despite how it might feel, was only five months ago. The next two most popular search topics concern two musicians who died suddenly at a young age: Avicii, who committed suicide in April, and Mac Miller, who died of a drug overdose in September.
Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee, who died in November, took the fourth spot, and the fifth is the Marvel Studios' film Black Panther, which was released in February and saw the biggest search spike of any movie in 2018.
Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, topped the list of most popular people, followed by singer Demi Lovato, actor Sylvester Stallone, YouTuber Logan Paul, and reality TV star Khloé Kardashian. The World Cup also topped the list of news events, followed by Hurricane Florence, the Mega Millions results, the Royal Wedding, the election results, Hurricane Michael, and Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation.
All of the lists look a bit different when specifically honing in on the U.S., though. The World Cup also had the biggest search spike domestically, but in America, designer Kate Spade and chef Anthony Bourdain made the top five searches after being further down the list worldwide. The biggest movie in the U.S. was Black Panther, the biggest video game was Fortnite, the biggest TV show was Roseanne, the biggest song was "Bohemian Rhapsody," the biggest athlete was Tristan Thompson, and the biggest politician was Stacey Abrams. Check out the full results at Google. Brendan Morrow
The National Enquirer's publisher is cooperating with New York prosecutors, telling them that it paid one of the women alleging she had an affair with President Trump $150,000 and did so specifically to prevent her from influencing the election.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said Wednesday that prosecutors reached a non-prosecution agreement with American Media, Inc., the Enquirer's publisher, and that as part of this agreement, AMI says it "made the $150,000 payment in concert with a candidate's presidential campaign, and in order to ensure that the woman did not publicize damaging allegations about the candidate before the 2016 presidential election," per NBC News.
Karen McDougal, a model, says she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007, which Trump denies. Prosecutors also say AMI has admitted the "principal purpose" of paying McDougal was to "suppress" her story and "prevent it from influencing the election."
This news comes after Trump's ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in prison in part due to his role in violating campaign finance laws by paying McDougal in order to keep her silent about an alleged affair. Cohen did not pay McDougal directly but rather made arrangements for AMI to purchase the rights to her story but not publish it.
AMI's admission in court stands in contrast to its 2016 statement to The Wall Street Journal: "AMI has not paid people to kill damaging stories about Mr. Trump." Brendan Morrow
