Big news for Waterloo fans.
No, the second Mamma Mia! movie was not leaked a month early. Napoleon's famous hat from his just-as-famous losing battle was sold at auction for the equivalent of $325,000 Monday, exactly 203 years after his crushing surrender, BBC reports.
It's a small price to pay to emulate the French style icon, whose bicorne hat elongated his actually-not-short stature and made sure he could be seen in battle. This hat is one of only 19 in existence, though Napoleon owned about 120 until he was exiled, per BBC. One from the Battle of Marengo sold for around $2.2 million in 2014, yet this Waterloo exclusive was only expected to fetch around $46,000.
Why you wouldn't pay at least as much just to make ABBA references is a mystery. Kathryn Krawczyk
The few people who actually want to become the next White House chief of staff may need to go through the president's daughter and son-in-law first.
Politico reports that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are playing a major role in President Trump's chief of staff search; they're looking for a "political ally" and are "using their unrivaled influence to ensure they get one," the report states, noting that the process is being "carefully regulated" by the president's family.
Trump's daughter and son-in-law are so crucial in this decision, in fact, that their disapproval of some candidates makes their hiring seem unlikely. According to Politico, this includes David Bossie, Trump's former deputy campaign manager who he specifically cited as a potential candidate in a Tuesday interview with Reuters. A former White House official told Politico that Ivanka Trump and Kushner have to "sign off" on the pick, also noting that Chief of Staff John Kelly was one of their last political rivals in the White House.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that Kushner is reaching out to candidates about the job, as is Nick Ayers, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff who himself declined the role and was reportedly Trump's only real choice; he was also Ivanka Trump and Kushner's preferred choice. Kelly, however, is "not playing a role" in finding his successor. Brendan Morrow
Canada's Dec. 1 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Huawei, on a U.S. warrant has roiled U.S.-China trade negotiations and Chinese-Canadian relations. The dicey situation got even more complicated on Tuesday, when Canada confirmed that Chinese security agents arrested former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig for unspecified reasons and President Trump said he would consider intervening in the Meng case, politicizing what U.S. and Canadian officials have insisted is purely a legal affair. A judge in Vancouver also agreed to release Meng on $7.5 million bail.
The U.S. accuses Meng, the 46-year-old daughter of Huawei's founder, of conspiracy to defraud banks about the company's alleged violations of Iran sanctions. If she is extradited to the U.S. and convicted, Meng faces decades in jail. When Reuters asked Trump on Tuesday if he would intervene in the Meng case, he said he might.
"Whatever's good for this country, I would do," he said. "If I think it's good for the country, if I think it's good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made — which is a very important thing — what's good for national security, I would certainly intervene if I thought it was necessary." It's possible Meng could be released, he added. "It's also possible it will be a part of negotiations. But we'll speak to the Justice Department, we'll speak to them, we'll get a lot of people involved."
"The U.S. and China have tried to keep Meng's case separate from their wider trade dispute," The Associated Press reports. "Trump undercut that message." Also, "an intervention by Trump would seem to confirm China's suspicion that this is not a legal proceeding but a political negotiation," The Washington Post adds, "potentially changing the terms of the conflict." Peter Weber
