Reason Roundup

Trump Wants Russia Back in the G7: Reason Roundup

Plus: bipartisan bill would tell feds to buzz off on marijuana, prosecutors seize New York Times reporter's emails, and Trump may take pardon suggestions from NFL players.

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Michael Kappeler/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom

As Trump heads to the G7 meeting, he's still obsessing about Russia. After heckling Canada about the War of 1812 earlier this week, President Donald Trump is headed up to our northern neighbor to meet with other world leaders for the G-7 summit. It is not expected to go smoothly.

This morning, however, Trump seemed to be in high spirits about the day's events:

But Trump himself couldn't stop talking about Russia on Friday morning, suggesting to reporters that it was unfair to exclude Vladimir Putin from the gathering:

It doesn't matter what you call it. It used to be G-8, now Russia is out. Why are we having a meeting without Russia? Would recommend Russia should be a part of it.

The summit, which takes place in the Quebec town of La Malbaie, has drawn a wave of Quebec City protests that are being reported alternately as "mostly peaceful" and as a night of "violent protesters throw[ing] flares and burn[ing] flags in standoff with police."

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The final nails in pot prohibition's coffin? The "Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States" (STATES) Act, introduced by Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) yesterday, would "amend the Controlled Substances Act to provide for a new rule regarding" marijuana. Under the bipartisan proposal, the federal ban on weed would "not apply to any person acting in compliance with State law relating to the manufacture, production, possession, distribution, dispensation, administration, or delivery of marihuana."

At a press conference, Gardner complained that cannabis entrepreneurs in states where weed is legal "can't get a bank loan or set up a bank account because of the concern over the conflict between the state and federal law. We need to fix this public hypocrisy."

See Gardner and Warren's full statements below:

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"A former Senate Intelligence Committee aide was arrested on Thursday in an investigation of classified information leaks where prosecutors also secretly seized years' worth of a New York Times reporter's phone and email records," the Times reported on Thursday.

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