We now know that Trump Had A Second Secret Meeting With Putin At The G-20. This second meeting was Putin, Putin’s translator, and Trump – a situation that violates national security protocols and is terminally stupid. He obviously doesn’t want any Americans to sit in on the meeting with his loan manager.

Charlie Pierce declares that it’s the money as the eighth person at Junior’s meeting was Irakly Kaveladze, Vice President of ZAO Crocus International.

CNN tells us:

Kaveladze is a senior vice president at Crocus Group, the real estate development company run by Azerbaijani-Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov, according to Kaveladze’s LinkedIn. His personal website says he “holds responsibility for multiple elements of the company’s Russian development project.”

Natalia Veselnitskaya is an ethnic Russian, Rinat Akhmetshin is a Tatar, Kaveladze is a Georgian, the Agalarov family is Azerbaijani, so a Soviet, rather than Russian party. Kaveladze says that he only went to translate for Ms Veselnitskaya, who arrived with her own translator [GRU certified, no doubt]. Akhmetshin said he had a lunch date and just sort of tagged along. Things like this were really funny when the Marx Brothers did them…

Update: The translator was Anatoli Samochornov, an ethnic Russian.

Le Puy-en-Velay / Romans-sur-Isère

Distance: 165 kilometers.

A hill stage with category 3 Côte de Boussoulet and category 4 Col du Rouvey in the first third, and then a 100 kilometers of sprints and breakaway attempts.

This was Sunweb’s stage that gave their leader, Michael Matthews, a win and moved him up the leaderboard for the Green Jersey. The stage was beset with crosswinds, which are common in the region.

Christopher Froome ( GBr – SKY – 001 ) [Yellow] 68h 18′ 36″
Marcel Kittel ( Ger – QST – 101 ) [Green] 373 points
Warren Barguil ( Fra – SUN – 143 ) [Polka Dot] 117 points
Simon Yates ( GBr – ORS – 089 ) 6 [White]

Team: Team Sky ( SKY – 001-009 ) [Yellow numbers]
Stage winner: Michael Matthews ( Aus – SUN – 141 )
Combative: Sylvain Chavanel ( Fra – DEN – 174 ) [Red numbers]

Top Ten:

1 Christopher Froome ( GBr – SKY – 001 )
2 Fabio Aru ( Ita – AST – 051 ) + 00′ 18″
3 Romain Bardet ( Fra – ALM – 011 ) + 00′ 23″
4 Rigoberto Uran ( Col – CDT – 188 ) + 00′ 29″
5 Mikel Landa ( Spa – SKY – 006 ) + 01′ 17″
6 Simon Yates ( GBr – ORS – 089 ) + 02′ 02″
7 Daniel Martin ( Irl – QST – 105 ) + 02′ 03″
8 Louis Meintjes ( RSA – UAD – 061 ) + 06′ 00″
9 Damiano Caruso ( Ita – BMC – 042 ) + 06′ 05″
10 Nairo Quintana ( Col – MOV – 021 ) + 06′ 16″

The Rest of the Top 30:
[Read more →]

Position: 11.9N 62.5W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West [275°] near 25 mph [41 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 40 mph [ 65 kph].
Wind Gusts: 55 mph [ 90 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 35 miles [ 55 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1012 mb ↑.

Currently about 55 miles [ 90 km] West-Southwest of Grenada.

The storm has degenerated into an open wave and all warnings and watches have been cancelled. This is the final advisory.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]