NEW YORK (AP) - The Washington publication The Hill issued a lengthy report on Wednesday finding fault with several articles by journalist John Solomon that it published last year and were used as discredited narratives by President Donald Trump and many of his supporters in their fight against impeachment.

The ...

John Rood resigned at Trump's request, becoming the latest official to be purged following the impeachment trial.

With his approval rating again climbing to post-impeachment high, Donald Trump mocked his Democratic challengers by contending his campaign's internal polling shows him winning a second term.The president used a tweet to call his campaign's polling "REAL," contending those surveys show him "beating all of the Dem candidates".

(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine wants to move on in its relationship with the U.S. after the country was pulled into domestic politics during the impeachment process of President Donald Trump, the country’s foreign minister said.The Ukrainian government is “happy that the whole investigation, the whole impeachment part, is over,” Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York. “We hope that nobody will poke their nose in our elections. That’s what we are trying to do here, staying away from your local affairs, with your elections, especially in the electoral year.”Ukraine was pulled into a bitter U.S. political fight after a phone call between Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy set the impeachment process in motion. The president was acquitted by the Senate last month for pressuring the Ukrainian government to announce investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden to help his re-election.Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, said in Kyiv last week after meeting Zelenskiy that it was time for Republicans and Democrats to get past the crisis and support Ukraine with security assistance. Murphy spoke during a visit along with Republican Senators Ron Johnson and John Barrasso. Witnesses in the House impeachment inquiry said Trump held up such aid for months last year to pressure Zelenskiy to announce probes into Biden and the Democrats.The Ukrainian government doesn’t believe its relationship with the U.S. needs to be “reset,” Prystaiko said. Ukraine was “dragged” into this affair but “we don’t believe that it affected our relations,” he added.Ukraine remains locked in a bitter struggle with Russia after President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea in 2014 in a conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives. Talks mediated by Germany and France have yielded some progress, including prisoner exchanges, but there’s still no resolution in sight.A Ukrainian soldier died Tuesday as Russian-backed fighters sought to advance beyond territorial lines established under a five-year-old peace accord, Ukraine’s military said. The incident comes just days after the Kremlin offered grounds for encouragement by handing control of Ukraine policy to Dmitry Kozak, a senior official with a reputation for pragmatism.Ukraine has been at war with Russia for six years because “we are making the same choice as American people did -- market-driven economy and the just democratic freedoms,” Prystaiko said.Ukraine will use international pressure to persuade Iran to cooperate to provide more information on the circumstances that led to the shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January, the same night Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps fired a barrage of missiles at a U.S. base in Iraq.“We do have some instruments in our power to push them, maybe, if they are not cooperating enough,” Prystaiko said. “We believe that they don’t have the technical capacity to do it in a way that everybody in the world will believe that this is” helping the investigation.Ukraine is pressing Iran to send the so-called black box recorders from the Boeing Co. plane that was shot down after taking off from Tehran last month, Prystaiko said earlier this month. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said his country won’t let the flight recorders leave Iran and be decoded without the presence of Islamic Republic envoys.\--With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska.To contact the reporters on this story: Glen Carey in Washington at gcarey8@bloomberg.net;Vonnie Quinn in New York at vquinn@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Larry LiebertFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) could soon build an "insurmountable" delegate lead, Michael Bloomberg's campaign warned in a memo, per Axios. And they think other, more centrist candidates should get out of the billionaire's way so he can stop him."The fact is if the state of this race remains status quo – with [former Vice President Joe] Biden, [former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor] Pete [Buttigieg], and [Sen.] Amy [Klobuchar (D-Minn.)] in the race on Super Tuesday — Bernie is likely to open up a delegate lead that seems nearly impossible to overcome," said Kevin Sheekey, Bloomberg's top strategist. "I don't think many people understand the dire consequences here."In the memo, Sheekey and his colleague Howard Wolfson, wrote the three candidates mentioned above have "no path" to accruing delegates and would essentially block Bloomberg from ably challenging Sanders.Former President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe backed up Sheekey's claim that Sanders could be close to locking things up, saying he'll "never relinquish" his lead if projections hold true and he's still on top after Super Tuesday in March. Read more at Axios.More stories from theweek.com Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils Susan Rice shamed John Bolton for sitting on his impeachment testimony. Bolton said it wouldn't have mattered. The Democrats gave Mike Bloomberg what he deserved

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is condemning China for its decision to expel three reporters from The Wall Street Journal from the country."Mature, responsible countries understand that a free press reports facts and expresses opinions," Pompeo said in a statement on Wednesday. "The correct response is to present counter arguments, not restrict speech."This came after China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said three journalists from the Journal would have their credentials revoked over the paper's recent headline, "China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia," The New York Times reports. The reporters weren't actually involved with the article, which was an opinion piece, but Beijing called the story "racist" and "malicious." The journalists, two of whom are American and one of whom is Australian, have been ordered to leave China within five days, although the Times notes it's not clear if that's possible, as one of is currently in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus.Journal editor Matt Murray called China's actions "harsh and unprecedented," saying the paper "will continue in the coming days to push for this action to be reversed." The Foreign Correspondents' Club also called the expulsion "an extreme and obvious attempt by the Chinese authorities to intimidate foreign news organizations." The Journal noted this is "the first time in the post-Mao era that the Chinese government has expelled multiple journalists from one international news organization at the same time."Pompeo's condemnation came after he warned African countries in a speech Wednesday to "be wary of authoritarian regimes and their empty promises" in an apparent swipe at China. The State Department also told China Tuesday that five major Chinese news outlets will be treated as foreign state operatives by the United States going forward.More stories from theweek.com Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils Susan Rice shamed John Bolton for sitting on his impeachment testimony. Bolton said it wouldn't have mattered. The Democrats gave Mike Bloomberg what he deserved

John Rood, a top Pentagon official who had a role in the Ukraine aid deal at the heart of Trump's impeachment, resigned Wednesday.

(Bloomberg) -- A top Defense Department official who advised against cutting off U.S. military aid to Ukraine has resigned after President Donald Trump asked for his departure.John Rood, the under secretary of defense for policy, said in a letter to the president dated Wednesday that he’ll step down Feb. 28 “as you requested.” Rood, who had been in his post since January 2018, didn’t say why the president sought his ouster.“It’s my understanding from Secretary Esper that you requested my resignation from serving as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy,” Rood said in his letter, which was confirmed by Pentagon officials. “I leave with the utmost admiration for the outstanding team with which I worked at the Defense Department.”Some senior national security officials had lost confidence in Rood’s ability to carry out Trump’s agenda, according to multiple officials who asked not to be identified discussing a personnel matter.Rood drew attention because he was the official who certified in May to Congress that Ukraine was eligible to receive $250 million in security assistance. That aid was later temporarily blocked by the White House, a decision at the center of Trump’s impeachment.The president had recently asked some associates whether Rood should be released, according to a person familiar with the matter. Trump wished Rood well in a tweet.CNN reported earlier this month that Rood warned Defense Secretary Mark Esper against withholding military aid to Ukraine in an email on July 25, the same day Trump asked the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a phone call to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.Trump was acquitted by the Senate earlier this month of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over his pressure campaign on Ukraine.After the trial ended, Trump quickly moved to oust some members of his administration who testified in the House impeachment inquiry, including Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman from the White House National Security Council and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.Rood will be replaced by deputy under secretary James Anderson until a permanent replacement is named, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters. The post is one of the most important at the Pentagon, managing the office that translates and implements policy set by senior defense civilian leaders. The office uses as its benchmark National Security Strategies published by incoming administrations and companion National Defense Strategies issued by the Pentagon.Despite a decade in the private sector, some of Trump’s associates considered Rood a bureaucrat who would delay execution of the president’s policies. Trump likes his directives to be implemented rapidly and national security aides believed Rood never fully agreed with the president’s positions, according to two people familiar with the situation.One Republican national security official who asked not to be named said some of Rood’s colleagues disliked his performance as a leader. During Rood’s tenure, several other people in the Pentagon’s policy shop departed. In July, Rood’s deputy, David Trachtenberg, resigned after less than two years. The departure of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver was announced in December. He had been in the role since January 2018.Rood joined the department after having served as a vice president at Lockheed Martin Corp. He previously had worked in a variety of government agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council and as a Senate staff member and adviser to former Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican from Arizona.To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net;Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.net;Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Bill FariesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.