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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  Two more officials give closed-door depositions in impeachment inquiry

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  ‘You can’t impeach somebody just because you don’t like them’: Michigan, swing voters and the impeachment

  Yahoo News Video

The Latest: China editor says HK police should use live ammo

The head editor of China's nationalistic Global Times newspaper says Hong Kong police should use snipers to fire live ammunition at violent protesters. Hu Xijin made the comments Sunday evening during a prolonged standoff between riot police and demonstrators occupying Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Hong Kong has been roiled by six months of anti-government protests.

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  Hong Kong: Court strikes down face mask ban as Chinese editor calls for police snipers to open fire on protesters

  The Independent
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  Chinese troops join Hong Kong cleanup as protesters retreat

  MarketWatch

Chile police stopped rescue workers helping dying protester: human rights watchdog

Chile's independent human rights watchdog said on Saturday it would file a formal complaint for murder against police officers who allegedly prevented paramedics from attending a heart attack victim amid a protest Friday. Security forces firing tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons made it impossible for rescue workers to properly treat the victim, Chile's publicly-funded National Institute for Human Rights said. Twenty-nine year old Abel Acuna died shortly after at a nearby Santiago hospital.

Nuclear missile bunker: yours for less than $400k

One local newspaper described the sales listing, with calculated understatement, as a “mid-century fixer-upper”: an underground bunker built to withstand a nuclear attack, and to house the fire power to retaliate. The decommissioned nuclear silo in southern Arizona was once home to the Titan II, the largest intercontinental ballistic missile deployed by the US Air Force. The silo's owner, Rick Ellis, told the Arizona Daily Star newspaper that he was selling the property because he's “bored”.

Massachusetts man arrested after son, 5, allegedly takes heroin to school and brags it makes him feel like Spider-Man

A father in Massachusetts is facing criminal charges after his 5-year-old son allegedly brought heroin to school and said tasting it made him feel like Spider-Man. Benny Garcia's son took a bag of heroin to kindergarten on Thursday, prosecutors said, and put some of the powder in his mouth. The boy told a teacher he got it from his living room, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported, and said eating the powder turns him into the superhero whose image was stamped on the plastic bag.

US businesswoman says 'heartbroken' by Britain's Johnson

A US businesswoman at the centre of controversy over whether Boris Johnson showed her inappropriate favouritism amid an alleged affair said Sunday she had been left "heartbroken" and "humiliated" by the British prime minister. Jennifer Arcuri, who is accused of getting privileged access to foreign trade jaunts and grants when Johnson was previously London mayor, told Britain's ITV he was treating her like "some fleeting one-night stand". "I'm terribly heartbroken by the way that you have cast me aside like I am some gremlin," Arcuri, addressing Johnson directly, told ITV's Exposure programme, in clips released ahead of its broadcast on Sunday.

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  Jennifer Arcuri turns on Boris Johnson and warns she has been ‘keeping his secrets’

  The Independent
• Arcuri Says Boris Johnson Cast Her Aside Like ‘Some Gremlin’

  Bloomberg

There have been more mass shootings than days in 2019

The number of mass shootings across the U.S. thus far in 2019 has outpaced the number of days this year, according to a gun violence research group. This puts 2019 on pace to be the first year since 2016 with an average of more than one mass shooting a day. As of November 17, which is the 321st day of the year, there have been 369 mass shootings in the U.S., according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which tracks every mass shooting in the country.

This Decision Could Be Bigger Than Impeachment

Overlooked as the nation was riveted by the opening days of the televised impeachment proceedings was an appeals court decision that started a clock ticking for the Supreme Court to finally pick a side in what Attorney General Bill Barr has called a “scorched earth, no-holds-barred war” between Congress and a president who has categorically refused to cooperate with its investigations into his misconduct. Unless the Supreme Court acts, Trump's taxes—which he has fought furiously to keep hidden since beginning his campaign for the presidency— will be turned over to Congress as soon as Wednesday. Thus, the nation will soon begin to learn whether the Supreme Court's conservative majority is, as Trump himself hopes, composed of “Trump judges” willing to side with the president in cases where lower courts have shrugged aside the president's weak arguments for stonewalling investigations into his misconduct.

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.

On an upswing, the Pete Buttigieg show rolls through New Hampshire

Earlier this week, Pete Buttigieg traveled more than 100 miles through the Granite State on a bus emblazoned with his name and packed with over a dozen journalists. It's a spectacle that hasn't been seen in recent presidential races, but it's part of a freewheeling strategy that has helped bring Buttigieg from relative obscurity to the top of the Democratic primary field. As the bus headed toward Buttigieg's third event of the day in Rochester, N.H., on Monday, news broke that a Quinnipiac University poll was showing the South Bend, Ind., mayor in third place in the state, just 1 percentage point behind Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

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  Black South Carolinians Say Buttigieg Campaign Misleadingly Touted Their Support

  HuffPost
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  Can Pete Buttigieg win the presidency?

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China urges US to “stop flexing muscles” in South China Sea

China on Monday urged the U.S. military to “stop flexing muscles” in the disputed South China Sea, a point of persistent friction in a relationship both sides said was generally improving. A spokesman for the Chinese ministry of defense, Col. Wu Qian, told reporters in Bangkok that the South China Sea was among numerous issues discussed earlier in the day when U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper held his first face-to-face meeting with the Chinese defense minister, Gen. Wei Fenghe. The South China Sea for years has been a major point of contention between Beijing and Washington.

• UPDATE 1-China says aircraft carrier on way to S.China Sea after Taiwan passage

  Reuters
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  Recent developments surrounding the South China Sea

  Associated Press

Elephant dies in captivity after killing villagers

An elephant named after Osama bin Laden, the late al-Qaida leader, has died in captivity after he was captured following a massive hunt in northeastern India, officials said Sunday.

Child abuse victims should have right to sue paedophiles caught with images of them, children charities say

Child abuse victims should be given new rights to sue paedophiles caught viewing or sharing indecent images of them, children charities have said. The Children's Charities' Coalition on Internet Safety (CCCIS) called for the initiative arguing it would act as a deterrent for offenders, who now know they are unlikely to go do jail, as it could mean potentially losing their homes and pensions if caught with abuse material. The CCCIS, which represents charities such as the NSPCC and Barnardo's, said those convicted of indecent images should also face a new automatic surcharge to fund the treatment and therapy costs of victims of abuse.

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.

How to watch the Leonids meteor shower

Colorful shooting stars will soon streak across the night sky during one of the most famous annual meteor displays. The Leonids meteor shower is expected to peak Sunday night into Monday morning, November 17-18. The Leonid meteor shower occurs every year when Earth passes through a cloud of debris left behind by comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle.

Chuck Todd Confronts GOP Senator: You Blame ‘Everybody’ but Trump on Ukraine Scandal

A month after their explosive confrontation over impeachment and Ukraine, Meet the Press anchor Chuck Todd and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) were back at it on Sunday when Todd pointedly told Johnson that he seemed to “blame this on everybody” but President Trump. Johnson, who has previously said it made him “wince” when U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland said President Trump would release military aid to Ukraine when Ukraine moved to “get to the bottom of what happened in 2016,” told Todd that he understood why Trump wanted an investigation.

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  Testimony ties president closer to pressure on Ukraine

  Associated Press
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  Trump Accuses Pence Aide Jennifer Williams Of 'Presidential Attack'

  HuffPost

The War That Made India a 'Great Power' (And Hurt Pakistan to This Day)

When British India became independent in 1947, the country was divided into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. The problem was that East Pakistan and West Pakistan were almost a thousand miles apart, and wedged in between them was archenemy India. Imagine if the United States only consisted of the East Coast and West Coast, and Russia controlled all of North America in between.

Racist, anti-Semitic incidents prompt Syracuse to halt fraternity activities; Alpha Chi Rho suspended

Syracuse University suspended one fraternity and halted social activities at all the school's fraternities for the rest of the semester after a series of racist and anti-Semitic incidents that have prompted days of protests, the school president announced Sunday. "Last night, one of our African American students reported being subjected to a verbal racial epithet from a group of students and visitors to our campus," Chancellor Kent Syverud said in a statement. Syverud's action was the latest in a series of crackdowns on fraternities across the nation and comes less than a week after San Diego State University suspended all Interfraternity Council-affiliated organizations following the death of a freshman who had attended a fraternity event.

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  Syracuse University suspends fraternity's activities after alleged racist incidents

  ABC News
• Syracuse suspends fraternity after report of racial slur

  Associated Press

French interior minister blames protest violence on 'thugs'

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner blamed "thugs" and "bullies" on Sunday for the violence that hit demonstrations the previous day marking marked the first anniversary of the anti-government "yellow vest" protests. "Yesterday, what we saw were few (legitimate) demonstrators but thugs, bullies and morons," Castaner told Europe 1 radio when asked about the violence in Paris on Saturday. Demonstrators torched cars and pelted police with stones and bottles and police fired tear gas and water cannon during the rallies to mark a year since the birth of the anti-government yellow vest movement.

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  Fires Burn in Paris on First Anniversary of Yellow Vest Protests

  Storyful
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  Scuffles mar anniversary of birth of yellow vest movement

  Associated Press

Here's everything we know about Mina Chang, who rapidly rose from a self-described singer to a State Department official with a dubious résumé

Department of State Mina Chang, a 35-year-old State Department official, prompted a flurry of interest over her credentials this week after she was alleged to have embellished her work history and educational experience. In a statement from her previous nonprofit group, executive director Ian Dailey characterized the news reports as a "classic 'hit-job'" and said he was "disgusted with the unwarranted attack" against Chang. Here's what we know about Chang, who joined the Trump administration in April.

Pope Francis compared rhetoric from anti-gay politicians to Hitler speeches

Pope Francis compared anti-gay comments made by politicians to speeches made by Adolf Hitler. He made the comment while speaking to an international penal law association on Friday, the Associated Press reported. He said: "These are actions that are typical of Nazism, that with its persecution of Jews, gypsies, people with homosexual orientation, represent an excellent model of the throwaway culture and culture of hatred."

Leading Muslim groups to challenge India holy site court ruling

Two leading Muslim groups said Sunday they will file petitions in India's top court challenging its decision to award Hindus control of a bitterly disputed holy site that has sparked deadly inter-religious violence. The Supreme Court ruled on November 9 that the holy site in Ayodhya, where Hindu mobs destroyed a 460-year-old mosque in 1992, must be managed by a trust to oversee the construction of a Hindu temple. A separate piece of land in Ayodhya would be given over to a Muslim group to build a "prominent" new mosque.

Three family murder-suicides within ten days shock Turkey as the country faces record unemployment

The deaths of three separate families within ten days have shocked Turkey as the country struggles with mass unemployment and a financial crisis. On Friday, authorities confirmed that a family of three had been found dead in their home in the central Istanbul district of Bakırköy, poisoned by cyanide. Earlier in the month, police discovered the bodies of a family of four, including a nine year-old daughter and a five year-old son, in their home in the southern city of Antalya.