we start with the world s biggest entertainment company because after a tough 18 months walt disney is bouncing back from the pandemic. it made revenues of 17 billion dollars in the three months tojune up 45 per cent on this time last year and more than wall street was expecting. its streaming service disney+ now has 116 million subscribers. and visitors are returning to its theme parks as restrictions are eased. but will it last? the bbc s michelle fleury has more from new york. the world s largest entertainment company walt disney is riding high after it reported total revenues of $17 billion. the ceo bob chapek says he is pleased with the company s trajectory even as he acknowledge the ongoing challenges of the pandemic. much of the excitement was over disney+, its streaming service which has thrived during the pandemic as the company lost money from the cinema box office as well as its theme parks and resorts and cruises. in the last three months, disney added ove
assistant to the president during the trump presidency, and more to the point, he was considered a personal aide. he was someone who would have been around donald trump a good bit. not a senior person in the trump white house or campaign, but someone who would have potentially privy to a lot of conversations he may have overheard, including on january 6th itself where pictures exist of him standing with the former president around that rally on the ellipse. so someone who had been close to the action on the day of january 6th itself, although it s not clear right now whether that s specifically what smith and the special counsel s office wanted to talk to him about or perhaps even some of his continuing work with trump s campaign. so we re continuing to figure out exactly whether this is the first appearance that he s made, whether there s additional appearances and the kinds of information he may have, but it s pretty clear, again, this is somebody who would have been physic
but along with the photo came a series of explosive new details. the doj claims there is evidence that the documents seized were, quote, likely concealed and removed before the fbi search on august 8th and, quote, efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government s investigation. the filing also disclosed that three classified documents recovered during the fbi search were located in the desks in the 45 office and the doj even laid out why it says it cannot trust information that came from trump s team saying its finding, quote, cast serious doubt on the claim that there had been a diligent search for records. now donald trump s legal team has until 8:00 p.m. tonight to respond to all of this and it will come to a head tomorrow. that is when a judge has scheduled a hearing on the special master request. joining me right now, a great team, we have ken dilanian, josh dossy, and law professor from the university of alabama, and columnist for the boston globe. kim and joyce ar
information classified at the highest levels. for context that s more than twice the amount that had been handed over in june after a grand jury subpoena. some documents were so sensitive government officials needed a higher level of security clearance just to review them. the doj says government records were likely concealed and removed and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government s investigation. we will find out what that could mean and why those seized passports may actually be relevant after all. here is what we don t know at this hour, how will trump s team respond? they have until 8:00 p.m. tonight and how will the judge rule after that special master hearing tomorrow? the doj says a special master would, quote, significantly harm important governmental interests, including national security interests. we will dig into all of that and more with our team of reporters and analysts. let s bring in nbc s julie ainsley former u.s. attorney barbara mcquaid
rick gates says he broke the law for paul manafort and also stole money from him. we are going to put all of the sanctions back in as they were before and more. economic sanctions on iran now back in effect as of midnight. will the pressure on tehran force a further split? two fast moving fires merging into one inferno becoming the largest ever wildfire in california history. plus, why is facebook reportedly asking banks for your financial information? good morning. welcome to early start. i m christine romans. i m phil mattingly. coffee straight to the veins. paul manafort s right hand man rick gates. back on the witness stand in the one-time trump campaign chairman trial on tax and fraud charges. the stakes are high for the white house. manafort and his deputy know a great deal of what went on behind closed doors during key months of the 2016 campaign.
yesterday, gates admitted under a grant of immunity he committed crimes alongside his former boss and against him as w