Nightly Brief

Top CNS stories for today including President Donald Trump telling reporters that he misspoke during a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki and that what he meant to say was he didn’t see why Russia “wouldn’t” be responsible for meddling in the 2016 election; Special Counsel Robert Mueller asks a federal judge to grant immunity from prosecution for five potential witnesses whose testimony he wants to compel at the upcoming criminal trial of former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort; environmental groups sue the Trump administration for drastically expanding offshore oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico without giving full consideration to the environmental risks; a federal judge throws out his order requiring the Los Angeles Times to delete part of an online article about a plea deal made between an ex-police detective and federal prosecutors – information gleaned from the court’s public computer records; a European human rights court ruled Tuesday that the Russian government mistreated members of the protest punk-rock band Pussy Riot when it imprisoned them after a highly publicized and unauthorized performance inside a Moscow cathedral in 2012, and more.

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National

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, smiles beside Russian President Vladimir Putin during a press conference after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, Monday, July 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

1.) President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he misspoke during a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki and that what he meant to say was he didn’t see why Russia “wouldn’t” be responsible for meddling in the 2016 election.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs after a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 21, 2017. Mueller’s team considers President Donald Trump a subject, not a criminal target, in the wide-ranging Russia investigation. The designation, first reported by The Washington Post and confirmed by The Associated Press, has raised questions about what legal threat Trump personally faces from the special counsel and whether it has any impact on his decision to sit for an interview with prosecutors. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

**2.) ** Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday asked a federal judge to grant immunity from prosecution for five potential witnesses whose testimony he wants to compel at the upcoming criminal trial of former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort.

3.) A federal judge on Monday sided with the government in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and two of its affiliates that argued Trump administration changes to the federal Title X funding limit the care they can provide to women.

FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2018 file photo, the logo for Twitter is displayed above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Twitter suspended at least 58 million user accounts in the final three months of 2017, according to data obtained by The Associated Press. The figure highlights the company’s newly aggressive stance against malicious or suspicious accounts in the wake of Russian disinformation efforts during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

4.) House Republicans on Tuesday criticized the content filtering practices of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as unfairly targeting conservative viewpoints, with some lawmakers suggesting increased government regulation of the social media giants.

5.) Environmental groups sued the Trump administration late Monday for drastically expanding offshore oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico without giving full consideration to the environmental risks.

Regional

6.) The federal judge who will decide whether Texas may require healthcare providers to bury or cremate fetal remains said in court Monday that he will not rule based on his personal beliefs but on whether the law unconstitutionally impairs a woman’s right to abortion.

FILE - This Sunday, June 17, 2018 file photo shows Norman Pearlstine, executive editor of the Los Angeles Times, photographed in Beverly Hills, Calif. A U.S. judge has lifted an order that required the Los Angeles Times to remove information from an article about a court document that was meant to be kept from the public. The Times reports that Judge John Walter reversed the order Tuesday, July 17, 2018. The order "clearly violates the First Amendment," Pearlstine said in a statement. (Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times via AP, File)

7.) A federal judge on Tuesday threw out his order requiring the Los Angeles Times to delete part of an online article about a plea deal made between an ex-police detective and federal prosecutors – information gleaned from the court’s public computer records.

8.) A Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday affirmed a federal judge’s order preliminarily barring California from enforcing a voter-approved ban on high-capacity gun magazines.

International

9.) A European human rights court ruled Tuesday that the Russian government mistreated members of the protest punk-rock band Pussy Riot when it imprisoned them after a highly publicized and unauthorized performance inside a Moscow cathedral in 2012.

10.) The act of war on Tuesday became a crime that the International Criminal Court can prosecute, though the court’s reach is severely limited because many of the world’s mightiest nations, including the United States, do not recognize the new international law.

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