The Ukraine Conversation:President Trump admitted yesterday that he did talk to the president of Ukraine about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

  He told reporters in the White House driveway, “The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place. It was largely the fact that we don’t want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.”

  The syntax is accurately his.

  Trump did not confirm that he pressured President Volodymyr Zelensky during a July 25^thphone call to investigate the Bidens. The Wall Street Journalreports that Trump brought it up eight times during that conversation. The Journalsays Trump urged Zelensky to work with his personal lawyer, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

  That conversation, and possibly others, has been reported to be the basis for a whistleblower complaint filed by someone who works in US intelligence.

  The July 25^thconversation coincides with Trump holding up $250 million in military aid marked for Ukraine, which is fighting a partial Russian occupation. There’s been no public evidence that the two events are linked and Congress ended up releasing the money.

  Peppered by unflattering reports about this affair, Trump is once again attacking The New York Timesand The Washington Postas “The Enemy of the People!”

  Last night he tweeted, “Breaking News: The Ukrainian Government just said they weren’t pressured at all during the ‘nice’ call. Sleepy Joe Biden, on the other hand, forced a tough prosecutor out from investigating his son’s company by threat of not giving big dollars to Ukraine. That’s the real story!”

Fathers and Sons:The Biden affair, whatever it was, occurred while Joe Biden was still in office and his son worked for a Ukrainian oil company that, for a time, was under investigation.

  Joe Biden says he never talked to his son about it. Trump said yesterday that, “Who wouldn’t speak to your son? Of course you spoke to your son.”

  Now, this comes from the man who says he never spoke to his son about the meeting Donald Trump Jr. had with a Russian woman offering campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton.

  Further attempting to turn the screws on the Bidens, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin had the following exchange yesterday with CNN’sJake Tapper:

    Mnuchin:What I do find is inappropriate is the fact that Vice President at the time’s son had very did significant business dealings in Ukraine. I for one find that to be concerning and to me that’s the issue that should be further investigated. 

    Tapper:So, it’s OK for Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump to do business all over the world. It’s OK for Ivanka Trump to have copyrights approved all over the world while President Trump is President, but while Biden was Vice President his son shouldn’t be able to do business dealings?

    Mnuchin:“I don’t really want to go more into these details.”

Mobsta Lobsta:The family of the late Boston mobster Whitey Bulger is suing the federal government for wrongful death for his murder in a federal prison. The 89-year-old old Bulger was serving a life sentence for the murders … otherwise known as “wrongful deaths” … of 11 people.

Permanent Vacation: More than 600,000 travelers around the world are stranded after the weekend collapse of the giant Thomas Cook travel agency. Like the evacuation of Dunkirk, Britain is mounting an effort to bring home about 150,000 of its citizens. 

  Thomas Cook is one of the world’s oldest and largest travel companies operating its own aircraft and hotels. The 178-year-old agency has been struggling for years in a changing travel environment. About 22,000 people are losing their jobs. 

Bulletins:President Trump is skipping today’s United Nations summit on climate change. — Iran says a British flagged tanker is free to go after two months in captivity. It could be an attempt to ease tensions with the West. — A coalition of Arab politicians in Israel moved Sunday to back the challenger Benny Gantz to help oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. —Steered by quarterback Daniel Jones in his first start, The New York Giants won their first game of the season, coming from behind to beat Tampa Bay 32-31. After benching the venerated Eli Manning last week, the Giants are calling this “the beginning of the Daniel Jones era.”

Statuary:HBO’s “Game of Thrones” won the Emmy for best drama series and 11 other Emmys last night, adding to its record total for the most wins of any television drama ever. Amazon’s “Fleabag” won best comedy.

  It wasn’t a great night for the traditional big three networks. Mike Hale writes for The NY Times, “For a few years now — three? five? — the most interesting thing about the Emmys broadcast hasn’t been the speeches or the gowns or even the awards themselves. It’s been the spectacle of broadcast television nervously, and a little desperately, dancing on its own grave.”

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