- PoliticsYahoo News
First public impeachment hearing showcases new details about Trump's push for Ukraine to investigate Bidens
Impeachment proceedings against President Trump entered a public phase Wednesday morning, giving the nation its first look at the previously unknown men and women who will testify that the president abused his office. The first two witnesses, a pair of veteran diplomats, gave riveting testimony about their experience of watching the Trump administration withhold vital security assistance to Ukraine this past summer, at a time when the country was under attack from Russia. Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, a senior State Department official in charge of European and Eurasian affairs, told the House Intelligence Committee that Trump and some of his representatives made it clear to Ukraine that it would not receive the nearly $400 million in assistance unless authorities there announced an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter and his involvement with a Ukrainian energy company.
WorldAFPVenezuela ex-intel chief missing in Spain ahead of US extradition: police
Venezuela's former military intelligence chief has gone missing in Spain just days after a court approved a request for his extradition to the United States on drug trafficking charges, police said Wednesday. "They are currently looking for him," said a spokeswoman for Spain's national police, referring to General Hugo Armando Carvajal. Judicial sources said police had gone to his house in Madrid after Friday's court decision but could not find him.
- NewsUSA TODAY
Damaged Hard Rock hotel will be completely demolished, New Orleans officials say
A month ago, the under-construction Hard Rock hotel in New Orleans' French Quarter partially collapsed, killing three and injuring dozens. The process will stretch through a busy tourist season in New Orleans that includes New Year's, the Sugar Bowl and Mardi Gras. A controlled demolition, according to New Orleans Fire Chief Tim McConnell, is the only safe way to bring down the damaged building.
- WorldBusiness Insider
An Air India flight was delayed nearly 12 hours after a stowaway rat was spotted in the cabin
An Air India flight flying from Hyderabad to Visakhapatnam was delayed for 12 hours after a rat was spotted in the cabin. Flight AI-952 was due to depart at 06:10 a.m. on Sunday but after the rat was spotted passengers were told to disembark the plane— which did not leave until later in the day at 5.30 p.m. according to the Times of India. A domestic flight in India was delayed for 12 hours after a rat was spotted in the cabin as the flight was about to take off.
PoliticsYahoo News VideoSteve Bannon says Democrats' strategy to impeach Trump is 'brilliant'
Far-right political strategist Steve Bannon has called the tactics deployed by Democrats to impeach his former boss and remove him from office “quite brilliant.
- WorldReuters
Poland seizes two for plotting Breivik-style attacks on Muslims
Polish agents arrested two people accused of planning attacks against Muslims inspired by Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik and suspected white supremacist Brenton Tarrant in New Zealand, the security service said on Wednesday. Far-right groups have grown in strength in Poland, the largest of the European Union's post-communist states. "The arrests are the result of information collected earlier by the Internal Security Agency (ABW) about an extremist group whose aim was to intimidate Muslims living in Poland," the statement said.
- NewsAssociated Press
Court rules against warrantless searches of phones, laptops
A federal court in Boston has ruled that warrantless U.S. government searches of the phones and laptops of international travelers at airports and other U.S. ports of entry violate the Fourth Amendment. Tuesday's ruling in U.S. District Court came in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of 11 travelers whose smartphones and laptops were searched without individualized suspicion at U.S. ports of entry. ACLU attorney Esha Bhandari said the ruling strengthens the Fourth Amendment protections of international travelers who enter the United States every year.
- PoliticsPolitico
In Republican lawmaker’s impeachment tweets, a hidden message?
The first letters of 23 of the Arizona Republican's tweets spell out “EPSTEIN DIDNT KILL HIMSELF” — a reference that many observers aren't willing to dismiss as a coincidence. The morbid acrostic, coincidental or not, reflects a repeated conspiracy theory-turned-meme over the death of the financier Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in August, and a subsequent autopsy ruled his death a suicide.
- WorldThe National Interest
Why China Loves Russia's Su-35 Fighter (And Might Buy Even More of Them)
Yet Moscow is offering to sell more Su-35 fighters to Beijing – and Chinese media reports that Beijing may accept. China has already bought 24 Su-35s – an upgraded version of the Cold War Su-27 Flanker – in a 2015 sale worth $2.5 billion, according to Russian news agency TASS. We are expecting a response from China on our offer to purchase modern weapons and military equipment manufactured in Russia, including additional batches of Su-35 fighter jets, Russia's arms export agency told TASS back in the summer.
- PoliticsThe New York Times
Feud Between Trump Advisers Underscores a White House Torn by Rivalries
In the three years since his election, Trump has never been accused of running a cohesive, unified team. In the emerging picture, the Trump White House is a toxic stew of personality disputes, policy differences, political rivalries, ethical debates and a fundamental rift over the president himself. The fault lines were most clearly evident Monday when Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, abruptly withdrew his effort to join a lawsuit over impeachment testimony after a sharp collision with his onetime colleague John Bolton, the former national security adviser.
- LifestyleCar and Driver
2020 Subaru Outback vs. 2019 Honda Passport in Photos
Freshly redesigned, Subaru's popular lifted wagon challenges Honda's mid-size Passport SUV in real-world usability and performance. From Car and Driver
- NewsThe Independent
'Words matter': Trump accused of fuelling attacks on Hispanics as violent hate crimes hit 16-year high
Violent hate crimes have climbed to a 16-year year high in the US, with a surge in attacks on Hispanics, according to FBI data. Reports of hate crimes dipped slightly in 2018 from an alarming increase the previous year, but violence rose as attacks increasingly targeting people instead of property. In its review of statistics collected from more than 16,000 law enforcement agencies, the FBI said there had been 7,120 hate crimes reported last year.
- PoliticsThe Week
William Taylor laughs at GOP question if Giuliani channel was 'as outlandish as it could be'
Republican counsel Steve Castor came to Wednesday's impeachment hearing with a curious line of questioning: could something extremely unusual have, theoretically, been even more unusual? Castor, the lawyer who questioned diplomat William Taylor on behalf of House Republicans during the public impeachment hearing, asked about what Taylor had previously described as a "confusing and unusual arrangement for making U.S. policy toward Ukraine" in the Trump administration, with there being a secondary, "highly irregular" channel including Rudy Giuliani operating outside of formal diplomatic processes. "In fairness, this irregular channel of diplomacy, it's not as outlandish as it could be," Castor said to Taylor.
WorldAFPDelhi smog hits 'emergency' levels as Britain's Prince Charles visits
The Indian capital's notorious air pollution hit "emergency" levels again Wednesday, coinciding with a visit by Britain's Prince Charles. New Delhi has been choked on and off for weeks, as industrial and traffic pollution -- combined with smoke from crop stubble burning -- cast a toxic pall over the metropolis. For the second time in 10 days, the amount of 2.5PM -- the deadly tiny particles that get into the bloodstream and lungs -- hit "emergency" levels, nearly 20 times the safe limit set by the World Health Organisation.
- WorldReuters
Korean survivor says Japan's no-show at 'comfort women' case in Seoul lacks honor
A South Korean woman who had been forced to work in a Japanese wartime military brothel said Japan lacked honor for failing to attend a South Korean court on Wednesday as it began hearing a civil case brought against its government by a group of victims. "I am a living proof of history," said Lee Yong-soo, the 91-year-old survivor, her voice quaking with emotion as she addressed a news conference held near the courthouse, before proceedings began. Reminders of Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean peninsula are inflammatory for both sides.
- NewsAssociated Press
The Latest: Officer says Miranda failure was a mistake
A police officer who obtained a confession from the suspect in the disappearance and death of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts says she made an honest mistake by initially failing to read him his legal rights. Officer Pamela Romero testified Wednesday that she tried to read Cristhian Bahena Rivera his Miranda warnings from memory during the Aug. 20, 2018, interrogation. After several more hours of questioning, Rivera led police officers to a cornfield where they discovered Tibbetts' body underneath a stack of leaves and stalks.
- WorldThe Daily Beast
Evo Morales Is Out. Is Nicolás Maduro Next?
Morales was one of several presidents in Latin America who have claimed to represent the masses in their countries, sometimes helping to raise them from poverty, sometimes plunging them back into it, and almost always hanging on to power even when the streets turn against them. There's Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, formerly a Sandinista “revolutionary,” now a Sandinista crushing opposition no matter how tattered his credibility. There was Hugo Chávez, who ruled here in Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, and was followed by the uncharismatic Maduro clinging to the “Chavista” organization and the government despite a ruined economy.
- BusinessBloomberg
Warren Says Big Business Shouldn’t Worry About Her Presidency
Warren's progressive proposals for reducing inequality, including a wealth tax, breaking up big technology and agriculture companies, as well as her $21 trillion plan to replace private health insurance with a government-run system, have raised concerns on Wall Street that her policies would be ruinous and push the U.S. too far to the left. As she has gained in the polls, she's come in for criticism from Wall Street executives and billionaires, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman and Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates. The Massachusetts senator, who has pledged not to take big-donor money to fuel her campaign, said the criticism from Wall Street reminded her of the opposition she faced when she proposed establishing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the financial crisis.
- PoliticsPolitico
What Impeachment Will Cost the GOP
President Donald Trump and this generation of Republicans plainly are looking to the politics of the Clinton impeachment as a source of comfort. They are deluding themselves in a profound way. Leave aside the argument that many Americans will regard abuse of power in foreign affairs as more serious than lying under oath about extramarital affairs, the reality is that Clinton and Democrats were buoyed by impeachment only in a near-term sense.
- BusinessCar and Driver
2020 Toyota Camry, 2021 Toyota Avalon Adding All-Wheel Drive
Toyota will be adding all-wheel drive as an option on 2020 Camry and 2021 Avalon models. It comes with a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and an eight-speed automatic transmission. The all-wheel-drive Camry goes on sale in spring, with the AWD Avalon following later, in fall 2020.
- NewsCBS News
Montgomery's first African-American mayor hopes MLK is "proud"
Steven Reed made history Tuesday when he was sworn in as the first African-American mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, the city that was the first capital of the Confederacy during the Civil War. It's also the city where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke on the steps of the State Capitol in 1965 following the march from Selma. Now Reed, 45, envisions a Montgomery that is unified, which has not always been the case in a city known as the "Cradle of the Confederacy," CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan reports.
- EntertainmentArchitectural Digest
A History of Modern American Architecture
A new book surveys the stunning work of Ezra Stoller, the most prominent photographer of 20th-century American architecture Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
PoliticsYahoo News VideoThe U.S. Navy canceled a routine Black Sea operation after Trump complained that it was hostile to Russia
Christopher Anderson, an aide to Kurt Volker, former special envoy to Ukraine, testified that the White House canceled a Navy freedom-of-navigation operation in the Black Sea after President Trump complained to then-national security adviser John Bolton about a CNN report that framed the operation as a counter to Russia, Politico reported.
WorldAFP'Blossom everywhere': Hong Kong protesters evolve tactics
From "be water" to "blossom everywhere", Hong Kong's black-clad pro-democracy protesters' tactics have evolved this week in their bid to overwhelm police by creating flashpoints in as many areas as possible. The campaign of massive disruption has seen small groups of protesters emerge all across the city of 7.5 million people from Monday to block intersections, vandalise shops, clash with police and damage the vital train network. "We must blossom everywhere to divert the police force," read an anonymous post on Wednesday morning on an internet message board popular with protesters, echoing other calls online.
- NewsReuters
Michael Avenatti faces new fraud charge in Nike extortion case
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday unveiled a new fraud charge against lawyer Michael Avenatti, accusing him of lying to a client as part of his alleged effort to extort Nike Inc. The prosecutors also dropped two counts of conspiracy against Avenatti from the case, which was first made public in March, according to a superseding indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan. "I am extremely pleased that the two counts alleging I engaged in a conspiracy against Nike have just been dismissed by Trump's DOJ," Avenatti wrote on Twitter, referring to the U.S. Department of Justice under President Donald Trump.
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