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Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general.
One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that took place in September in the senator’s office, at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race.
The previously undisclosed discussions could fuel new congressional calls for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 presidential election. As attorney general, Sessions oversees the Justice Department and the FBI, which have been leading investigations into Russian meddling and any links to Trump’s associates. He has so far resisted calls to recuse himself.
When Sessions spoke with Kislyak in July and September, the senator was a senior member of the influential Armed Services Committee as well as one of Trump’s top foreign policy advisers. Sessions played a prominent role supporting Trump on the stump after formally joining the campaign in February 2016.
At his Jan. 10 Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, Sessions was asked by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) what he would do if he learned of any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of the 2016 campaign.
“I’m not aware of any of those activities,” he responded. He added: “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.”
Officials said Sessions did not consider the conversations relevant to the lawmakers’ questions and did not remember in detail what he discussed with Kislyak.
“There was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer,” said Sarah Isgur Flores, Sessions’s spokeswoman.
In January, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) asked Sessions for answers to written questions. “Several of the President-elect’s nominees or senior advisers have Russian ties. Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after election day?” Leahy wrote.
Sessions responded with one word: “No.”
In a statement issued Wednesday night, Session said he “never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign. I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.”
Justice officials said Sessions met with Kislyak on Sept. 8 in his capacity as a member of the armed services panel rather than in his role as a Trump campaign surrogate.
“He was asked during the hearing about communications between Russia and the Trump campaign — not about meetings he took as a senator and a member of the Armed Services Committee,” Flores said.
She added that Sessions last year had more than 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, including the British, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Canadian, Australian and German ambassadors, in addition to Kislyak.
In the case of the September meeting, one department official who came to the defense of the attorney general said, “There’s just not strong recollection of what was said.”
The Russian ambassador did not respond to requests for comment about his contacts with Sessions.
The Washington Post contacted all 26 members of the 2016 Senate Armed Services Committee to see whether any lawmakers besides Sessions met with Kislyak in 2016. Of the 20 lawmakers who responded, every senator, including Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), said they did not meet with the Russian ambassador last year. The other lawmakers on the panel did not respond as of Wednesday evening.
“Members of the committee have not been beating a path to Kislyak’s door,” a senior Senate Armed Services Committee staffer said, citing tensions in relations with Moscow. Besides Sessions, the staffer added, “There haven’t been a ton of members who are looking to meet with Kislyak for their committee duties.”
Last month, The Post reported that Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn had discussed U.S. sanctions with Kislyak during the month before Trump took office, contrary to public assertions by Mike Pence, the vice president-elect, and other top Trump officials. Flynn was forced to resign the following week.
When asked to comment on Sessions’s contacts with Kislyak, Franken said in a statement to The Post on Wednesday: “If it’s true that Attorney General Sessions met with the Russian ambassador in the midst of the campaign, then I am very troubled that his response to my questioning during his confirmation hearing was, at best, misleading.”
Franken added: “It is now clearer than ever that the attorney general cannot, in good faith, oversee an investigation at the Department of Justice and the FBI of the Trump-Russia connection, and he must recuse himself immediately.”
Several Democratic members of the House on Wednesday night called on Sessions to resign from his post.
“After lying under oath to Congress about his own communications with the Russians, the Attorney General must resign,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement, adding that “Sessions is not fit to serve as the top law enforcement officer of our country.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Twitter late Wednesday that “we need a special counsel to investigate Trump associates’ ties to Russia.”
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said at a CNN town hall Wednesday night that if the substance of Sessions’s conversations with the Russian ambassador proved to be improper or suspect, he too would join the call for Sessions to go.
“If there is something there and it goes up the chain of investigation, it is clear to me that Jeff Sessions, who is my dear friend, cannot make that decision about Trump,” Graham said – although he stressed he Sessions’s contacts with the Russian ambassador could have been “innocent.”
“But if there’s something there that the FBI thinks is criminal in nature, then for sure you need a special prosecutor. If that day ever comes, I’ll be the first one to say it needs to be somebody other than Jeff.”
Current and former U.S. officials say they see Kislyak as a diplomat, not an intelligence operative. But they were not sure to what extent, if any, Kislyak was aware of or involved in the covert Russian election campaign.
Steven Hall, former head of Russia operations at the CIA, said that Russia would have been keenly interested in cultivating a relationship with Sessions because of his role on key congressional committees and as an early adviser to Trump.
Sessions’s membership on the Armed Services Committee would have made him a priority for the Russian ambassador. “The fact that he had already placed himself at least ideologically behind Trump would have been an added bonus for Kislyak,” Hall said.
Michael McFaul, a Stanford University professor who until 2014 served as U.S. ambassador to Russia, said he was not surprised that Kislyak would seek a meeting with Sessions. “The weird part is to conceal it,” he said. “That was at the height of all the discussions of what Russia was doing during the election.”
Two months before the September meeting, Sessions attended a Heritage Foundation event in July on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention that was attended by about 50 ambassadors. When the event was over, a small group of ambassadors approached Sessions as he was leaving the podium, and Kislyak was among them, the Justice Department official said.
[FBI once planned to pay former British spy who authored controversial Trump dossier]
Sessions then spoke individually to some of the ambassadors, including Kislyak, the official said. In the informal exchanges, the ambassadors expressed appreciation for his remarks and some of them invited him to events they were sponsoring, said the official, citing a former Sessions staffer who was at the event.
Democratic lawmakers, including senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have demanded in recent weeks that Sessions recuse himself from the government’s inquiry into possible ties between Trump associates and Russia.
Last week, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, became one of the few Republican representatives to state publicly the need for an independent investigation.
Sessions’s public position on Russia has evolved over time.
In an interview with RealClear World on the sidelines of the German Marshall Fund’s Brussels Forum in March 2015, Sessions said the United States and Europe “have to unify” against Russia.
More than a year later, he spoke about fostering a stronger relationship with the Kremlin. In a July 2016 interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sessions praised Trump’s plan to build better relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Donald Trump is right. We need to figure out a way to end this cycle of hostility that’s putting this country at risk, costing us billions of dollars in defense, and creating hostilities,” Sessions told CNN.
Asked whether he viewed Putin as a good or bad leader, Sessions told CNN: “We have a lot of bad leaders around the world that operate in ways we would never tolerate in the United States. But the question is, can we have a more peaceful, effective relationship with Russia? Utilizing interests that are similar in a realistic way to make this world a safer place and get off this dangerous hostility with Russia? I think it’s possible.”
Julie Tate, Robert Costa and Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.
How many videos have you watched today? Most likely a modest bunch (at any rate)
Today, it feels like videos are everywhere. From Netflix to Snapchat, we have countless chances to watch and make videos — so it’s no surprise that video is a standout amongst the most powerful marketing tools accessible.
How to leverage this powerful instrument?
Audience
First things first, you have to define your audience. Successful video marketing campaigns evoke emotions and surprise viewers. Defining your audience implies understanding their identity and what motivates them to act. To generate higher engagement, you have to appeal to your audience.
The Point
You have to offer people something which they can use instantly after watching the video. When they see what you are offering them, you can instantly make the pitch that is successful or simply give your site URL towards the end section of the video.
Length
It has been seen that audiences like short yet clear videos and as they have attention spans that last for a few seconds just, you have to make the videos attractive and short. Keep them compelling and along these lines, the video will have more odds of getting viral. You likewise need to make sure that what you are passing on is not just understandable to the people who know your industry or who are linked to it, but even to the general masses.
It is difficult and there are no assurances of success. Be that as it may, video is the future, in any event in the short-to medium-term, and any organization not doing it is at danger of falling behind.
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Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump reached for poetry and conjured a vision of common national purpose Tuesday during his first address to Congress, shifting his tone from the dark, searing approach of his previous big speeches to the nation.











































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Are you using video yet as part of your marketing strategy? Are you looking for ways to connect on a deeper level with your audience? Advertising is quickly shifting away from textual-only content and moving toward video. And the growth of social-media platforms is partly responsible for this change, as these platforms are optimized for creating and sharing videos.
Related: By 2019, Video Marketing Will Be Everything. You’ve Got to Get in on the Trend — Now.
Now, it’s up to content creators to deliver quality ad content that can be consumed in this new age of video marketing.
However, many brands and influencers aren’t prepared for the incoming wave of video marketing. That’s why services like The Draw Shop now exist, to provide storytellers and companies with a platform to create easily digestible, authentic video content. They’re designed to make it simple to create top-notch explainer videos that will reach all sorts of customers, from individuals to startups to Fortune 500 companies.
Video marketing is taking over the content world. You don’t want to miss out. Here are five things you should know so you can build a winning video-marketing campaign:
Consumers today are overloaded with content. As a marketer, you need to realize that your message is just one of thousands flooding into the average person’s life.
That’s why it’s crucial that you use creativity as a means of differentiation. Traditional advertising has saturated the marketplace, and consumers are sick and tired of seeing the same types of advertisements over and over.
You should look for alternatives that will make your message really pop, like those whiteboard videos from The Draw Shop. While what you say in your video is certainly important, a creative presentation will make it stand out from the crowd.
It used to be a real challenge for consumers to watch videos, especially from their mobile devices. They had to wait for the content to load and buffer, long before they could even hear the message.
Luckily, with the advance of technology, those days of low-quality video are long gone. Today, consumers are able to stream high-quality HD content from their mobile devices. But, it’s also important to remember that neither they nor you have to create movie-length video for it to be effective.
“For your video content, stick to the sweet-spot of two-to-three minutes,” advises Alex Charfen, co-founder and CEO of Charfen, a training and membership organization helping visionary entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses. “Attention spans are getting shorter, but you still want to be able to provide value. So, if you can keep your message short and to the point — and ideally stick to only one point — you’ll have greater success connecting with your audience.”
Content creators should take full advantage of advanced consumer technology and deliver video that is easy to view, understand and consume.
Related: The 4 Pillars of Stellar Video Marketing
Another easy and actionable way to differentiate your message is to be 100 percent authentic and genuine. Most of the advertisements in today’s consumer ecosystem are jam-packed with blatant lies and hyperbole, often presented in bolded typefaces sprinkled with exclamation marks. You can stand out by taking a genuine approach. Your customers want content that they can relate to, specifically catering to their tastes.
“I’m a big fan of shooting when you’ve got something to say, not trying to make everything perfect,” says Charfen, “Your audience responds to your transparency and your real reactions to what’s going on in their world. So, when you have something to say, say it.”
Create something that people will want to watch; and be genuine. You’ll have a much easier time getting your message across.
The great thing about users who watch your video is that if they are attracted to the content, they’ll be very likely to click through and subscribe to your services or buy your product.
Animated marketing videos have an incredible effect on customers. This is because they transfer information in a way that makes it easier for consumers to understand, instead of confusing the customer with nonsensical ads. They provide you with the tools you need, to teach your customers why they need your service, and to do so in a nonaggressive way.
One of the best ways to grow your audience is through social-media channels. Video and unique content is great, but they’re worthless if no one can share them with their friends.
That’s why you should invest in optimizing your content so it can be shared on both mobile and desktop. Make sure it runs on screens of all sizes so that no one is getting cut out of your potential viewer list. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, ensure your content goes viral through sharing.
Video is here to stay. Social platforms are making it ever easy to consume video content, and live-streaming continues to boom. To remain a major player in the digital world, recognize that video is no longer a luxury, but a requirement.
Related: Leverage the Undeniable Power of Video Marketing on All Platforms
So, now that you know what works, how will you use video in your business?
After quitting his day job to pursue his dream of working for himself, Calvin Wayman relocated from Salt Lake City to sunny Southern California. He sold solar systems door to door to pay the bills and fund his online business. Wayman’…
Update for 4:38 p.m. EST: SpaceX will fly two private citizens on a passenger flight around the moon in 2018 using a Dragon 2 spacecraft and the massive new Falcon Heavy rocket, the company’s founder Elon Musk announced today (Feb. 27).
The two private citizens — who have not been named — approached SpaceX about the trip, according to a statement from the company. The individuals will be the only crew members on board what is expected to be about a week-long trip around the moon, according to Musk, who spoke with reporters during a phone conference today. The names of the two individuals will be announced later pending the result of initial health and fitness tests, the statement said.
The moon flight is scheduled to take place after SpaceX plans to fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station as part of the Commercial Crew Program. Here’s a look at SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsules, Falcon Heavy rockets and more as we complete our main story:
Editor’s note: This story will be updated with more details from Elon Musk’s teleconference with reporters today.
***
Our morning preview:
Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk says his private spaceflight company SpaceX will make an announcement Monday (Feb. 27), but exactly what will be announced is a mystery.
In a Twitter post last night, Musk offered a tantalizing hint of something new coming from SpaceX: « SpaceX announcement tomorrow at 1 p.m. PST, » Musk wrote on Twitter. That pegs the reveal for 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) if, like Space.com here, you’re in an Eastern time zone.
SpaceX announcement tomorrow at 1pm PST
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 27, 2017
An inquiry to SpaceX representatives last night yielded little more than a tantalizing « stay tuned » response. So we’re on pins and needles waiting to hear what the private spaceflight company will be unveiling today. Here are some possibilities that come to mind:
First Crew Dragon test flight date (unpiloted): Earlier this month, ahead of SpaceX’s first Dragon launch from NASA’s Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Floriday, company president Gwynne Shotwell hinted that the company was aiming for the first uncrewed launched of its Crew Dragon spacecraft near the end of the year. Could the date be set?
Dragon spacesuits: NASA has tapped SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to fly American astronauts to and from the International Space Station, but SpaceX has not yet unveiled its spacesuit design for the seven-person space capsule. Boeing, which will also fly astronauts for NASA, unveiled its Boeing Blue spacesuit last month. During her talk with reporters at Launch Pad 39A this month, Shotwell hinted that SpaceX spacesuits would be pretty cool to see.
Dragon final interor design: We do know that NASA astronauts have been practicing with SpaceX’s Dragon flight controls setup because NASA has posted a series of photos of the session.
Falcon Heavy test flight date: The Falcon Heavy, SpaceX’s new heavy-lift rocket, which looks like three Falcon 9 boosters strapped together, is scheduled for a debut test flight sometime this year. Could it be ready to announce a target date.
Reusable rocket announcement: SpaceX has pioneered commercial reusable rocket technology and is expected to launch the first reused Falcon 9 rocket booster in March during a commercial satellite launch. Could something else be in the works?
New launch site: SpaceX currently has two launch sites in Florida (NASA’s Launch Pad 39A and a pad under repair at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station); as well as a pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. But the company has also been hard at work building its own launch site in Brownsville, Texas. Is it time for an update on that new private spaceport?
Satellite fleet: SpaceX is planning to build a constellation of 4,000 broadband satellites in a factory in Seattle. Could that be what today’s about?
And finally…
Something about Mars: SpaceX and Mars go together like peanut butter and jelly. Musk has often said that he wants to make a colony on Mars possible to make humanity a two-planet species. Last year, he unveiled SpaceX’s concept for an Interplanetary Transport System that would use a fleet of giant reusable spacecraft to ferry colonists to Mars hundreds at a time. In the near term, SpaceX is also drawing up plans to send an uncrewed Dragon capsule to Mars in the next few years. Could a new Red Planet reveal come today?
Those are just some of the possibilities that Elon Musk and SpaceX could unveil today. What are YOU hoping to hear from SpaceX at 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT)? Let us know in the comments below.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Update for 4:38 p.m. EST: SpaceX will fly two private citizens on a passenger flight around the moon in 2018 using a Dragon 2 spacecraft and the massive new Falcon Heavy rocket, the company’s founder Elon Musk announced today (Feb. 27).
The two private citizens — who have not been named — approached SpaceX about the trip, according to a statement from the company. The individuals will be the only crew members on board what is expected to be about a week-long trip around the moon, according to Musk, who spoke with reporters during a phone conference today. The names of the two individuals will be announced later pending the result of initial health and fitness tests, the statement said.
The moon flight is scheduled to take place after SpaceX plans to fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station as part of the Commercial Crew Program. Here’s a look at SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsules, Falcon Heavy rockets and more as we complete our main story:
Editor’s note: This story will be updated with more details from Elon Musk’s teleconference with reporters today.
***
Our morning preview:
Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk says his private spaceflight company SpaceX will make an announcement Monday (Feb. 27), but exactly what will be announced is a mystery.
In a Twitter post last night, Musk offered a tantalizing hint of something new coming from SpaceX: « SpaceX announcement tomorrow at 1 p.m. PST, » Musk wrote on Twitter. That pegs the reveal for 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) if, like Space.com here, you’re in an Eastern time zone.
SpaceX announcement tomorrow at 1pm PST
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 27, 2017
An inquiry to SpaceX representatives last night yielded little more than a tantalizing « stay tuned » response. So we’re on pins and needles waiting to hear what the private spaceflight company will be unveiling today. Here are some possibilities that come to mind:
First Crew Dragon test flight date (unpiloted): Earlier this month, ahead of SpaceX’s first Dragon launch from NASA’s Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Floriday, company president Gwynne Shotwell hinted that the company was aiming for the first uncrewed launched of its Crew Dragon spacecraft near the end of the year. Could the date be set?
Dragon spacesuits: NASA has tapped SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to fly American astronauts to and from the International Space Station, but SpaceX has not yet unveiled its spacesuit design for the seven-person space capsule. Boeing, which will also fly astronauts for NASA, unveiled its Boeing Blue spacesuit last month. During her talk with reporters at Launch Pad 39A this month, Shotwell hinted that SpaceX spacesuits would be pretty cool to see.
Dragon final interor design: We do know that NASA astronauts have been practicing with SpaceX’s Dragon flight controls setup because NASA has posted a series of photos of the session.
Falcon Heavy test flight date: The Falcon Heavy, SpaceX’s new heavy-lift rocket, which looks like three Falcon 9 boosters strapped together, is scheduled for a debut test flight sometime this year. Could it be ready to announce a target date.
Reusable rocket announcement: SpaceX has pioneered commercial reusable rocket technology and is expected to launch the first reused Falcon 9 rocket booster in March during a commercial satellite launch. Could something else be in the works?
New launch site: SpaceX currently has two launch sites in Florida (NASA’s Launch Pad 39A and a pad under repair at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station); as well as a pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. But the company has also been hard at work building its own launch site in Brownsville, Texas. Is it time for an update on that new private spaceport?
Satellite fleet: SpaceX is planning to build a constellation of 4,000 broadband satellites in a factory in Seattle. Could that be what today’s about?
And finally…
Something about Mars: SpaceX and Mars go together like peanut butter and jelly. Musk has often said that he wants to make a colony on Mars possible to make humanity a two-planet species. Last year, he unveiled SpaceX’s concept for an Interplanetary Transport System that would use a fleet of giant reusable spacecraft to ferry colonists to Mars hundreds at a time. In the near term, SpaceX is also drawing up plans to send an uncrewed Dragon capsule to Mars in the next few years. Could a new Red Planet reveal come today?
Those are just some of the possibilities that Elon Musk and SpaceX could unveil today. What are YOU hoping to hear from SpaceX at 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT)? Let us know in the comments below.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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