Gordon Sondland, meet bus.
Sondland serves as President Trump's ambassador to the EU, a role he got after donating $1 million to Trump's inauguration. But Trump doesn't really remember that massive donation or even Sondland himself, he claimed to reporters on Friday.
Sondland testified for House impeachment investigators last month, with reports suggesting his testimony wasn't very consequential. But a transcript of Sondland's hearing released Tuesday showed Sondland had amended his statement since he had first spoken. His additional four pages of sworn testimony revealed he did have knowledge of a possible quid pro quo between the United States and Ukraine, which he previously denied.
Before Sondland testified for House impeachment investigators last month, the president called him a "really good man and great American." But when asked about the additional testimony Friday, Trump dug out his usual amnesiac defense, saying "I hardly know the gentleman." Kathryn Krawczyk
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has faced quite a bit of criticism over his decision to not discipline any players over their role in what was mostly a player-orchestrated, technology-infused sign stealing scheme in 2017, the year they won the World Series. In a wide-ranging interview with ESPN's Karl Ravech about the cheating scandal published Sunday, he explained his reasoning behind that choice.
Manfred said he understands why opposing players and fans would like to see Astros other than former general manager Jeff Lunhow and former manager A.J. Hinch face consequences, but if players were suspended or disciplined in some way MLB would have had to deal with grievances from the Players' Association. Theoretically, in Manfred's view, the MLBPA would have argued Lunhow never fully articulated a 2017 MLB memo on the use of technology during games to the clubhouse.
"So we knew if we had disciplined the players in all likelihood we were going to have grievances and grievances that we were going to lose on the basis that we never properly informed them of the rules," he told Ravech.
Besides, he doesn't think it's fair to say the players were let off the hook because the scrutiny they're facing is harsh enough. "I think if you watch the players, watch their faces when they have to deal with this issue publicly, they have paid a price," he said. "To think they're skipping down the road into spring training, happy, that's just a mischaracterization of where we are." Read more at ESPN and watch Manfred's full 45-minute interview here. Tim O'Donnell
Sonic the Hedgehog just sped right past the bad buzz of its first trailer to an impressive box office debut.
The Paramount Pictures film based on the video game franchise grossed an estimated $57 million at the domestic box office through Sunday, and it's expected to take in $68 million during the four-day holiday weekend. The three-day haul sets a new record for the best domestic opening weekend for a movie based on a video game, beating the $54 million debut of 2019's Pokémon Detective Pikachu, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sonic's domestic opening also came in above previous tracking that suggested it would take in between $40-45 million, Variety reports.
This was quite a comeback for a film that some thought was headed toward disaster when the first trailer dropped last year, revealing a Sonic whose design was widely panned. But in a move that's almost unheard of, the movie was delayed three months from its original November release so Sonic could be completely redesigned. That decision paid off, as when the tweaked version of the character was revealed in November, fans were largely satisfied.
Sonic the Hedgehog also ended up receiving surprisingly solid reviews from critics, as it currently holds a 63 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, joining a rare group of video game adaptations to be fairly well received, and its A CinemaScore indicates general audiences thought even more highly of the film. Now, when it comes to a sequel, Paramount likely can't go fast enough. Brendan Morrow
Yemen's Houthi rebels said air raids conducted by the Western-backed Saudi-UAE-led military coalition killed more than 30 civilians Saturday just one day after the rebels said they shot down a Saudi jet fighter with a surface-to-air missile. The United Nations confirmed Saturday's death toll.
The Houthis said women and children were among the dead, and the coalition acknowledged the "possibility of collateral damage" during their search-and-rescue mission for the downed plane.
The conflict which began in 2015 after the Houthis, who are backed by Iran, forced out former Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, prompting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to support loyalist forces. Since then, Lise Grande, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said there's been little done to protect the Yemeni people.
"So many people are being killed in Yemen — it's a tragedy and it's unjustified," she said in light of the most recent attacks. "Under international humanitarian law parties which resort to force are obligated to protect civilians. Five years into this conflict and belligerents are still failing to uphold this responsibility. It's shocking." Read more at Al Jazeera and BBC. Tim O'Donnell
Chinese state media published an internal speech delivered by President Xi Jinping on Saturday in which he describes taking action on the coronavirus outbreak as early as Jan. 7.
In the speech, which was given Feb. 3, Xi said he had "issued demands about the efforts to prevent and control" the virus during a meeting of the Communist Party's highest council, the Politburo Standing Committee, last month, and that he personally authorized the lockdown of the epicenter, Wuhan, beginning on Jan. 23. "I have at every moment monitored the spread of the epidemic and progress in efforts to curtail it," he said.
Publishing the speech is viewed as an attempt to show Xi has been involved from the start since he's been criticized for remaining in the shadows. "The overall tone of the speech of appears to be defensive," Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, told The New York Times. "He wants to change the narrative, which until this point has been very unfavorable to the top leadership."
But some analysts think it could backfire and lead to even more criticism about how the government kept the public in the dark for too long. "It seems like he's trying to indicate that 'we weren't asleep at the wheel,'" Jude Blanchette, the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Times. "But it comes off like 'we knew this was a problem, but we weren't sounding the alarm.'" Read more at The New York Times. Tim O'Donnell