- PoliticsYahoo News
House Democrats ponder expanding impeachment probe after Sondland 'game changer' testimony
Ambassador Gordon Sondland's explosive testimony Wednesday that “everyone was in the loop” on President Trump's efforts to secure an investigation of a political rival prompted rank-and-file Democrats to discuss whether it was time to expand their probe. Sondland testified in minute detail — down to the names of staffers and code words used internally to identify officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — how Vice President Mike Pence, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, former national security advisor John Bolton and others knew the intimate details of Trump's plans. “Was there a quid pro quo?” Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, testified.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Gabbard and Harris clash over visions for the Democratic Party
At the Democratic debate in Atlanta on Wednesday, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Sen. Kamala Harris of California clashed over their differing visions for the party, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. Gabbard had criticized Hillary Clinton as the “personification of the left that has sickened the Democratic Party” after the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee suggested in an interview last month that she believed Republicans were “grooming” Gabbard to be a spoiler as a third-party candidate. Clinton, who did not mention Gabbard by name, further suggested that the Hawaii Democrat is “the favorite of the Russians.
- WorldAssociated Press
Son of former German president stabbed to death in Berlin
The son of former German president Richard von Weizsaecker was stabbed to death while he was giving a lecture at a hospital in Berlin where he worked as a head physician, police said Wednesday. A 57-year-old German man is in custody after he jumped up from the audience at the Schlosspark-Klinik and attacked Fritz von Weizsaecker with a knife on Tuesday evening. Von Weizsaecker died at the scene from a knife wound to the neck despite immediate attention from colleagues, said Martin Steltner, a spokesman for Berlin prosecutors.
- NewsReuters
Seller of bullets to Las Vegas gunman pleads guilty to ammo licensing offense
An ammunition dealer who acknowledged selling hundreds of incendiary tracer rounds to the gunman who killed nearly 60 people at a Las Vegas music festival two years ago pleaded guilty on Tuesday to manufacturing bullets without a license. Douglas Haig, 57, of Mesa, Arizona, became the first and only person arrested and charged in connection with the Oct. 1, 2017, massacre, which ended when the gunman, Stephen Paddock, killed himself. Haig told reporters following his arrest last year that none of the surplus military ammunition he sold to Paddock in September 2017 was ever fired during the killing spree, which ranks as the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
NewsAFPMexicans sue Walmart over El Paso shooting
Mexico's government said Wednesday it has helped 10 Mexican citizens file lawsuits against Walmart over an August shooting at a store in El Paso, Texas, where a suspected white nationalist killed 22 people. "The objective of these suits, presented in El Paso county, is to hold the company responsible for not taking reasonable and necessary measures to protect its clients from the attack," the foreign ministry said in a statement. Eight Mexicans were killed and eight wounded in the August 3 attack in El Paso, a city on the US-Mexican border where 83 percent of the population is Latino.
NewsUSA TODAYTeen used remote-controlled car to smuggle meth across US border, officials say
A 16-year-old boy allegedly tried to smuggle methamphetamine across the U.S.-Mexico border with a remote-controlled car. Border Patrol agents arrested the teen Sunday, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release Tuesday. This attempt comes two years after drug traffickers flew a remote-controlled drone to drop a 13-pound package of methamphetamine across the border, also resulting in an arrest.
- BusinessBloomberg
Delisting Chinese Firms From U.S. Is a ‘Terrible Idea,’ Hank Paulson Says
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said calls to oust Chinese companies from American stock indexes was contrary to the foundations of capitalism, as he warned against the dangers of decoupling the world's two largest economies. Paulson, who's now chairman of the Paulson Institute, told Bloomberg's New Economy Forum in Beijing that moves to reduce ties between the U.S. and China would weaken American leadership and New York's leading role in finance. “When the next crisis comes -- and a crisis will come, because financial crises are inevitable -- we will regret it if we lack mechanisms for the world's first and second-largest economies to coordinate,” Paulson told the forum on Thursday, according to a prepared version of his remarks.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Russia 'ruined' Ukrainian naval vessels before handing them back, says Ukrainian navy
Three Ukrainian navy boats seized by Russia a year ago were vandalised before being handed back to Ukraine, the country's navy said. The fast gunboats Nikopol and Berdyansk and the tugboat Tany Kapu were welcomed by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and onlookers waving national flags arrived in Ochakiv, a Ukrainian naval port on the Black Sea on Wednesday evening. But Ukraine's navy said the vessels had been stripped bare and left so badly damaged that they had to be towed home by tug.
- PoliticsBusiness Insider
A mother who claims Hunter Biden fathered her child went public with a DNA test because he stopped paying child support, lawyers say
The mother of Hunter Biden's previously unknown child outed him as the father because he stopped paying to support the child, her lawyers say. Attorneys for Lunden Alexis Roberts submitted a court filing on Wednesday declaring "with scientific certainty" that Biden was the father of the child, born in August 2018. Attorneys say the decision was made over Biden's "refusal to continue to support his child." They are seeking $11,058 in fees, and filed a petition for paternity and child support.
- LifestyleArchitectural Digest
20 of the Most Beautiful Bridges in the World
Designed by world-renowned architects such as Zaha Hadid and Santiago Calatrava, these bridges are travel destinations in their own right Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- PoliticsYahoo News
FBI seeks interview with CIA whistleblower
The FBI recently sought to question the CIA whistleblower who filed a complaint over President Trump's July 25 Ukraine call — a move that came after a vigorous internal debate within the bureau over how to respond to some of the issues raised by the complaint's allegations and whether they needed to be more thoroughly investigated, according to sources familiar with the matter. An FBI agent in the Washington field office in October reached out to one of the lawyers representing the whistleblower and asked to question the CIA analyst who triggered the congressional inquiry into the president's conduct, one of the sources said. It is unclear what the intended scope of the interview would be or whether the whistleblower's lawyers will agree to it.
- PoliticsThe Daily Beast
Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg Formally Files for 2020 Presidential Run
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has taken the next step to join the scrum to unseat Donald Trump, formally filing to run as a Democrat for the post of President of the United States. The billionaire Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat-again declared his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission early on Thursday afternoon. Mike Bloomberg 2020 Inc., his campaign committee, also filed FEC paperwork.
- CelebrityReuters
U.S. judge rebukes Epstein estate for keeping accusers in the dark about settlement
A U.S. judge on Thursday rebuked Jeffrey Epstein's estate for keeping the late financier's alleged victims in the dark about a fund that would compensate them for claims of sexual abuse. Epstein, 66, hanged himself in a Manhattan jail in August while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Bennet Moskowitz, a lawyer for the estate, told Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman on Thursday that the fund was an "extraordinary opportunity" for the alleged victims, though he could not say how much money would be available.
- NewsCBS News
Nearly ¾ of transgender people slain since 2017 killed with guns
Nearly three-fourths of transgender and gender non-conforming Americans slain in the last three years were killed with a firearm, according to data published this month by the gun violence prevention advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. The data sheds grim new light on the role of guns in what's been called an epidemic of violence against transgender Americans, as advocates honor the victims with nationwide vigils Wednesday during the Transgender Day of Remembrance. The data is available for the first time publicly via EveryStat for Gun Safety, the group's database detailing gun deaths in America.
WorldAFPUS aircraft carrier transits Strait of Hormuz
The US aircraft carrier strike group Abraham Lincoln sailed through the key Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday to show Washington's "commitment" to freedom of navigation, the Pentagon said, amid tensions with Tehran. The group's move through the strategic waterway separating Iran and the United Arab Emirates towards the Gulf was scheduled, and unfolded without incident, the US Navy said in a statement. It was the first time a US aircraft carrier group went through the strait since Iran downed a US drone in June in the same area.
- NewsUSA TODAY
'Don't let them in': Arrests made as hundreds protest Ann Coulter speech at UC Berkeley
A speech by conservative commentator Ann Coulter at University of California, Berkeley drew hundreds of protesters Wednesday night. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, police in riot gear guarded the building's entrances and barricades were erected in anticipation of the protests. Coulter was invited to speak by the Berkeley College Republicans for a speech about immigration called “Adios, America,” the Chronicle reported.
- PoliticsYahoo News Video
Schiff gives fiery closing on Day 3 of public hearings
After nearly 12 hours of testimony, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff concluded Day 3 of public impeachment inquiry hearings with impassioned remarks.
- WorldThe National Interest
Why Did Russia Launch 8 Submarines All at Once?
The eight submarines, including six nuclear-powered ships, sailed from their bases in northern Russia into the cold waters of the Barents and Norwegian Seas. At the same time, an additional two boats -- the nuclear-powered Sierra-class attack submarines Pskov and Nizhny Novgorod -- sailed into roughly the same waters for tests and training. The 10 vessels represent around 20 percent of the Russian submarine force.
- WorldAssociated Press
Climate activist’s remarks downplaying Holocaust spark anger
A prominent British climate change activist sparked anger Wednesday after appearing to downplay the Holocaust in an interview with a German newspaper. Roger Hallam, who co-founded the activist group Extinction Rebellion, told the German newspaper Die Zeit that the Nazis' murder of 6 million Jews was merely one of many genocides. In extracts from the interview released by Die Zeit on Wednesday, Hallam was quoted describing the Holocaust as “just another (expletive) in human history.
- PoliticsYahoo News
Maloney hammers Sondland on changing testimony — and extracts key concession
In a tense exchange at Wednesday's impeachment hearing of President Trump, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., grilled Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, over his changing testimony on what he understood about Trump's motivation in seeking an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. “Who would benefit from an investigation of the Bidens?” Maloney asked after an extended back-and-forth with Sondland on that point. “I assume President Trump would benefit —” Sondland said.
- PoliticsBloomberg
Pelosi, White House Seek USMCA Deal at Crucial Thursday Meeting
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is meeting Thursday with President Donald Trump's trade representative Robert Lighthizer, but she said even if they reach deal on the stalled U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, there might not be time to vote this year. I'm eager to get this done,” Pelosi told reporters ahead of the meeting, while saying she won't agree to a superficial deal without strengthened enforcement provision that would amount to “NAFTA with sugar on top. Pelosi said that even if the administration agrees to changes sought by Democrats, the House may not have enough time to write and vote on the legislation before the end of December.
- WorldReuters
Russia opens investigation into space center fraud after Putin rebuke
Russian investigators said on Thursday they had opened two criminal cases into the management of a company involved in building the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a space center in the country's Far East. The announcement came less than two weeks after President Vladimir Putin complained to government officials about corruption at the facility and called for further investigations. Construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome began in January 2011, part of a plan for Russia to reduce its dependency on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which Russia leases from the former Soviet Republic for space operations.
- NewsThe Daily Beast
Two Former Houston Police Officers Arrested by Feds for Deadly Drug Raid
Two former Houston police officers were indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday in connection with a January drug raid that left two people dead and five officers injured. Gerald Goines, 55, and his partner, 46-year-old Steven Bryant, were both taken into custody by the FBI on several charges stemming from a civil-rights investigation into the Jan. 28 narcotics raid at a Harding Street home. Goines is accused of falsifying information to secure a state search warrant, while his partner allegedly covered for him by submitting a false police report in the wake of the deadly raid.
WorldAFPIran's Guards praise 'timely' action against protesters
Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Thursday praised the armed forces for taking "timely" action against "rioters" and said calm had returned after days of unrest sparked by a hike in petrol prices. Motorists blocked highways in Tehran before the unrest spread to cities and towns across the country, with petrol pumps torched, police stations attacked and shops looted. "Incidents, big and small, caused by the rise in petrol price took place in (a little) less than 100 cities across Iran," said a statement on the Guards' official website Sepahnews.com.
- NewsThe Independent
Woman wounded in Las Vegas mass shooting dies after two years of treatment
A woman who spent two years in a nursing facility recovering from spinal injuries she suffered in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history has died. Kimberly Gervais could become the 59th fatality in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, depending upon the coroner's verdict. Police officers raided Paddock's high rise room in the Mandalay Bay Hotel on the Vegas strip minutes after the gunfire stopped, where they found he had killed himself.
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