Trump impeachment narrative gathers steam as diplomats fill in details

In the first week of public impeachment hearings, three witnesses, all veteran U.S. diplomats, added details of what they knew of President Trump's efforts to get Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a plan whose unraveling threatens his presidency. While the fundamental partisan dynamics of the inquiry continue to hold — Democrats who control the House appear poised to impeach the president, while Republicans in the Senate are unlikely to convict him — this week's developments shed new light on the months-long effort by the Trump administration to procure investigations from a foreign government.

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  Chris Wallace: If You're 'Not Moved' By Yovanovitch, 'You Don't Have A Pulse'

  HuffPost
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  Presidents can be impeached for almost anything. These are the alleged crimes that could lead to Trump's impeachment

  Business Insider

Stefanik embraces spotlight at impeachment hearings

The second day of the impeachment inquiry's public hearings, on Friday, began the same way as the first: with an attempt by Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, to interrupt proceedings with a procedural objection. Stefanik accused House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., of shutting down Republican questions, prompting Schiff to bang his gavel and declare her objection out of order. Stefanik again engaged in theatrics later in the hearing, forcing Schiff to gavel down her attempt to break the rules of the hearing and ask questions of the witness before it was her turn.

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  Can We Finally Stop Calling the Ukraine Call Summary a Transcript Now?

  Rolling Stone
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  Giuliani: House investigation ‘a travesty’

  Politico

Man caught at Houston airport with 35 pounds of liquid cocaine in shampoo bottles

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston caught an airline passenger trying to smuggle 35 pounds of liquid cocaine in shampoo bottles into the country earlier this week, the agency said in a press release. The CBP said officers discovered the bottles containing cocaine valued at more than $400,000 in the checked luggage of a 26-year-old Colombian citizen Monday after observing him at baggage claim and conducting a bag search. “Our officers are the first line of defense at our ports of entry, so they are trained in the various smuggling methods people use to bring illicit goods into the U.S.,” CBP Port Director Shawn Polley said in the press release.

Nicaraguan judge sentences man to 30 years in NY killing

A Nicaraguan judge sentenced a man to 30 years behind bars in the killing of a young nursing student in upstate New York, a district attorney in the state said Friday. The trial of Orlando Tercero in the 2018 killing of Haley Anderson marked an exceedingly rare legal proceeding in which the defendant was prosecuted under Nicaragua's legal system for a slaying that happened on American soil. Tercero is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Nicaragua.

Rogue elephant dies in captivity after killing villagers

A rogue elephant named after the late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has died in captivity after he was captured following a massive hunt in northeastern India, officials said Sunday. The male animal -- nicknamed "Laden" -- was tracked for days by forestry officers and tranquilised on Monday after a deadly October rampage killed five villagers in Goalpara, in the northeastern state of Assam. It was moved to Assam's Orang National Park where officials planned to teach it to patrol wildlife parks and sanctuaries in the state, but said it died early Sunday.

An expert in fraternity hazing deaths says coddling parents are part of the problem

Five young men have died in incidents that appear to be connected to fraternities at colleges across the country so far this fall. Hank Nuwer, a journalist who has been compiling a database on fraternity deaths for decades, believes over-indulgent parents are partly to blame for a recent uptick in dangerous behavior. "Parents want to show their love by giving everything — everything but old-fashioned lessons in self-restraint," he told Insider.

Belarus threatens to pull out of Russia integration deal over subsidy row

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday threatened to pull out of signing an integration deal with Russia next month if Moscow failed to resolve their dispute over energy subsidies. Russia has propped up its traditional ally with loans and subsidies to keep Belarus in its political orbit but now plans to phase these out to lessen the burden on its economy. Belarus previously said that it stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year from changes to Russian tax policy and has tried to negotiate compensation.

Penultimate C7 Corvette Being Enshrined At National Corvette Museum

The final Corvette – a black Z06 – was auctioned off earlier in the year for $2.6 million to a software company CEO, but the second to last Corvette isn't going far. This car will be delivered at and then donated to the National Corvette Museum, which is right across the street from the Corvette's assembly plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This penultimate C7 was purchased by the NCM's lifetime member and supporter, Ivan Schrodt, who will take delivery of the car on November 20th via Chevy's museum delivery program.

Why Russian Fighter Jets Are Threatening NATO In The Baltics

Key point: Russia and NATO's military buildup in the Baltics is creating a tense situation. In the most recent illustration of ongoing Russia-NATO military tensions over Baltic airspace, recently released footage shows a Russian Su-27 fighter making a sharp turn into an American F-15C. It is unclear when the video was filmed, with some speculating that it occured during a prior NATO BAP (Baltic Air Policing) mission. When viewed in that light, this incident seems to fall into the trend of what US officials have previously described as “unsafe” Russian interceptions and “aggressive maneuvers” in high-tension airspace.

Trump commits new offence which could lead to impeachment in the middle of his own impeachment hearing

It should not, perhaps, be surprising in the extraordinary state of affairs of Trumpworld that in the middle of his impeachment proceedings the president would tweet something which could lead to a further article of impeachment. The tweet disproves Mr Trump's claim that he was ignoring the hearings which he had claimed would go nowhere, and attacked using his usual terms against investigations into his conduct – a “worst ever witch-hunt”, “totally fake” and so on. At the same time the standing ovation from the public gallery for Marie Yovanovitch was a spontaneous moment of popular support for the former US ambassador to Ukraine traduced by the president in the formal proceedings.

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  White House budget official testifies in impeachment probe

  Reuters Videos
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  Marie ​Yovanovitch says attacks have had a "chilling effect" on diplomats

  CBS News Videos

Chicago teachers approve 'historic' contract that ended 11-day strike

Teachers officially approved a contract deal Friday following an 11-day strike in the nation's third-largest school district last month. Teachers went on strike Oct. 17 after months of failed negotiations with Chicago Public Schools and the city.The strike idled academics, sports and college prep for about 350,000 students and their families. Members of the union's governing body voted in favor of a tentative agreement with the city on Oct. 30, bringing the strike to an end the next day.

Real estate heiress who posted $35M bail acquitted of murder

A San Francisco Bay Area real estate heiress who was under house arrest on $35 million bail for more than two years plans to reconnect with her children and visit family in China after a jury acquitted her of killing the father of her kids, her attorney said Friday. After deliberating for 12 days, jurors found Tiffany Li not guilty on charges of murder and conspiring with her boyfriend to kill 27-year-old Keith Green in 2016 over a custody dispute. The case drew global attention when Li's family, who made a fortune in real estate construction in China, posted one of the highest bail amounts on record in the United States.

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  Hillsborough heiress murder trial: Tiffany Li found not guilty in killing of Keith Green, hung jury for Kaveh Bayat

  KGO – San Francisco
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  Who's Who in Hillsborough Heiress murder case

  KGO – San Francisco

Chicago gang leader accused of attempting to help Islamic State

A purported street gang leader from Chicago who allegedly became radicalized in prison faces federal charges accusing him of seeking to provide money to Islamic State militants in Syria, according to a complaint unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

S. African asylum-seekers held on trespassing charges

South African police detained more than 180 foreign nationals for storming the UN refugee agency in Pretoria, where they had been staging a sit-in protest, police said Saturday. Hundreds of asylum-seekers started camping in front of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on October 8, asking to be relocated to another country after a spate of xenophobic violence in September. Protesters broke into the UNHCR premises on Thursday after they were informed of a court order giving them three days to vacate the site.

20 Great Gifts for Boys Who Love to Tinker

These toys will do what your junior high chem teacher never could: make learning about science fun. From Popular Mechanics

Israel strikes Hamas targets after 2 rockets fired from Gaza

Israel said its aircraft hit military sites for Gaza's Hamas rulers Saturday after two rockets were fired from the Palestinian enclave. This was Israel's first strike against Hamas since the start of this week's cross-border fighting with another Gaza militant group, the Iran-backed Islamic jihad. The shooting ended in a shaky cease-fire announced Thursday.

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  Israel ‘thought building was empty’ before launching airstrike that killed five children in Gaza

  The Independent
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  Palestinian rockets, Israeli airstrikes jolt tenuous Gaza truce

  Reuters

No More Air: How An Entire Chinese Submarine Crew Died a Tragic Death in 2003

On April 25, 2003 the crew of a Chinese fishing boat noticed a strange sight—a periscope drifting listlessly above the surface of the water. At the time, some commentators expressed surprise that Beijing acknowledged the incident at all, and speculated it was obliquely related to contemporaneous criticism of Beijing's attempts to downplay the SARS epidemic. Read the original article.

Today's Democrats aren't for Michael Bloomberg. He should run as an independent, instead.

Regardless of the hurdles, however, I suspect that Michael Bloomberg would do the country a greater service by running as an independent rather than by seeking the Democratic nomination. Bloomberg is pawing the ground about entering the Democratic primaries. If Bloomberg opens his wallet, he can be a factor.

14 of the Best-Designed Hotel Restaurants in the U.S.

From Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, these hotels have recruited top designers and firms, such as Roman and Williams, Jacques Garcia, and Martyn Lawrence Bullard, to create spaces that are as memorable as the cuisine Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Sheriff calls deadly shooting at Airbnb rental a ‘bloodbath’

Authorities in the San Francisco Bay Area are calling a shooting that left five dead during a Halloween party at an Airbnb rental a “bloodbath,” where several partygoers were armed and some showed up looking for trouble. Contra Costa Sheriff David Livingston said Friday that he knows residents in the plush San Francisco suburb of Orinda are on edge after the massive party on Oct. 31 and wanted to provide an update, although he could not yet say what sparked the shooting and who shot whom. Livingston said there is a wealth of evidence to process, including casings that littered the floors and countertops of the four-bedroom home with vaulted ceilings that hosted roughly 100 people that night.

Iran leader backs petrol price hike that sparked deadly unrest

Iran's supreme leader on Sunday threw his support behind a decision to hike petrol prices, a move that sparked nationwide unrest in which he said "some lost their lives". Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed "hooligans" for damaging property and said "all the centres of the world's wickedness against us have cheered" the street protests. A policeman was killed in the western city of Kermanhshah in a clash with armed "rioters", the second confirmed death since protests erupted across Iran on Friday.

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  Iran's Khamenei backs gasoline price hike, blames 'sabotage' for unrest

  Reuters
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  One dead in Iran fuel protest after government hikes pump prices up to 50 per cent

  The Telegraph

‘No discipline. No plan. No strategy.’: Sen. Kamala Harris campaign in meltdown

As Sen. Kamala Harris crisscrosses the country trying to revive her sputtering presidential bid, aides at her fast-shrinking headquarters are deep into the finger-pointing stages. And much of the blame is being placed on campaign manager Juan Rodriguez.