GOP claim that Trump cares about corruption takes a hit at impeachment hearing

In his questioning of David Hale, undersecretary of state for political affairs, Ratcliffe reprised a now familiar defense of the president, that putting a hold on military aid to Ukraine was done out of concern about corruption in the country. The reasons for the hold in summer 2019, during Ukraine's ongoing war with Russia, were not communicated either publicly or within the diplomatic and national security bureaucracy. Citing other recent instances in which congressionally approved U.S. foreign aid had been withheld without explanation, Ratcliffe asked Hale, “So, having no explanation for why aid is being withheld is not uncommon?

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  'We Followed the President's Orders.' Read Gordon Sondland's Full Impeachment Hearing Opening Statement

  Time
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  Impeachment hearings takeaways: Sondland says 'everyone was in the loop' about Trump's push for Ukraine investigations

  KFSN – Fresno

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.

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  Democratic debate: housing, paid family leave, foreign policy among top concerns

  Yahoo Finance Video
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  Kamala Harris says Pete Buttigieg sounded "naïve" at Democratic debate

  CBS News

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg files paperwork to run for U.S. president

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg filed paperwork on Thursday with the Federal Election Commission to run for U.S. president as a Democrat, the latest sign that the former New York City Mayor is joining the crowded nominating contest. The filing allows Bloomberg to raise money in a bid for the White House, but an aide said on Thursday that no final decision on whether he will run has been made. Bloomberg, 77, has signaled that he plans a late-entry in the Democratic primary, suggesting he feels the field of nearly 20 candidates is vulnerable.

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  Michael Bloomberg Is One Step Closer to Entering the 2020 Presidential Race

  Vogue
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  Bloomberg's ex-campaign manager: Investors see Warren, Sanders as 'bad for stocks'

  Yahoo Finance

Teen used ‘ghost gun’ in California high school shooting

The teenager who shot five classmates, killing two, at a Southern California high school used an unregistered “ghost gun,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Thursday. Villanueva told media outlets Thursday that 16-year-old Nathaniel Tennosuke Berhow's .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol was assembled from gun parts and did not have a serial number. Berhow pulled the gun from his backpack on Nov. 14— his birthday — in an open-air quad at Saugus High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita and in 16 seconds shot five students at random.

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.

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  Ukraine says Russia returned ships in bad condition

  Reuters
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  Three navy ships held by Russia return to Ukraine port

  AFP

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

American Airlines admitted a mid-air accident that knocked out 2 flight crew and forced an emergency landing was not caused by spilled soap

Flickr/Oliver Holzbauer American Airlines admitted Tuesday that whatever knocked out two flight attendants and forced an emergency landing in October was not spilled soap, as the airline had previously claimed. On October 21, American Airlines flight 729 was flying from London Heathrow to Philadelphia, but was forced to land in Dublin, Ireland, when two staff members passed out. American Airlines said at the time that the incident was caused by "an odor caused by a spilled cleaning solution in the galley."

Fiona Hill put out fire in her hair with her hands before finishing test, Trump impeachment inquiry hears

British-born Fiona Hill was asked about the incident while giving evidence to members of the House Intelligence Committee after it was raised by Democrat Jackie Speier. Referring to a profile of Dr Hill in the New York Times, Ms Speier said: "I want to verify this story: I understand that when you were 11 years old there was a schoolboy who set your pigtails on fire. "And you were taking a test, turned around and with your hands snuffed out the fire and then proceeded to finish your test.

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  Impeachment hearings: 'Corruption' probe meant Bidens, witnesses say

  KABC – Los Angeles
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  An officer and an impeachment witness, he draws ire of Trump allies

  Reuters

Anger in China as it demands Trump veto Hong Kong bills

China on Thursday demanded President Trump veto legislation aimed at supporting human rights in Hong Kong and renewed a threat to take “strong countermeasures” if the bills become law.

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  UK to grant visa to Hong Kong consulate worker tortured in China

  The Telegraph
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  U.S. House passes Hong Kong rights bills, Trump expected to sign

  Reuters

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.

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  Mike Turner presses Gordon Sondland on tying President Trump to withholding Ukraine aid

  USA TODAY
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  Trump impeachment: Four key moments from bombshell Sondland testimony

  The Independent

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.

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  Obdulia Sanchez pleads not guilty to 6 felony charges in court

  KFSN – Fresno
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  Suspect in cold case killings pleads not guilty

  USA TODAY

In rare move, N. Carolina county removes Confederate statue

A North Carolina county removed a Confederate statue from a historic courthouse early Wednesday, joining the handful of places around the state where such monuments have come down in recent years despite a law protecting them. Preparations began Tuesday night to carefully dismantle the statue of a soldier outside the historic Chatham County courthouse, where it had stood since 1907, and continued for hours overnight, said county spokeswoman Kara Lusk Dudley. The removal comes months after Winston-Salem officials removed a Confederate statue from land there that had passed into private hands.

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.

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  Chanel Scurlock among those remembered at 20th annual Transgender Day of Remembrance in Raleigh

  WTVD – Raleigh/Durham
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  The Transgender Day of Remembrance: So Much Loss, So Much to Keep Fighting For

  The Daily Beast

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.

'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.

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  7 arrested during protest over Ann Coulter visit in Berkeley

  KGO – San Francisco
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  'Go Away': Hundreds Of Protesters Disrupt Ann Coulter Event At UC Berkeley

  HuffPost

DNC Drops Lackluster Fundraising Numbers During Dem Debate

The Democratic National Committee released its fundraising numbers during the presidential primary debate on Wednesday night, revealing that the committee lags far behind Republicans in funding for the 2020 elections. The DNC has $8.7 million in cash on hand, but it is $7 million in debt, according to its October Federal Election Commission filing. The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, had raised $156 million and had $61.4 million cash on hand as of the end of October.

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.

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  Trump probe builds evidence of 'quid pro quo'

  AFP
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  Impeachment hearings: Trump directed Ukraine quid pro quo, key witness says

  WTVD – Raleigh/Durham

Google's Tour Builder Is a Great New Way to Make Your Friends Hate You

Now you can create virtual tours of your annoying vacations. From Popular Mechanics

Mexicans sue Walmart over Texas shooting that left victims on both sides of border

Ten Mexican citizens have sued Walmart over the shooting at a store in the U.S. border town of El Paso, Texas, that killed eight Mexicans and left eight more injured, saying that Walmart did not do enough to protect its customers, Mexico said on Wednesday. The suspected gunman told police he was targeting "Mexicans" in the August shooting, which killed 22 people in total. Mexico's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the lawsuit, which was filed in Texas state court in El Paso County, aimed to hold the retailer accountable "for not taking reasonable and necessary measures to protect its customers."

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  10 Mexican Citizens File Suit Against Walmart Over El Paso Shooting

  Footwear News
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  Mexicans sue Walmart over El Paso shooting

  AFP

Fearful wait for justice a decade after Philippine massacre

A decade after 58 people were killed in the Philippines' worst political massacre, none of the alleged masterminds have been convicted yet, leaving families fearful that justice may never come. Though a verdict is now due next month over the bloodshed that drew international outrage, there is no guarantee of a conviction and the painfully slow-moving trial could still be derailed by corruption or even violence. "We are afraid for the life of the prosecutor or even our judge," said Mary Grace Morales, whose sister and husband were among 32 journalists killed in the attack, making it one of world's deadliest on media workers.

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.