| Trump says Kellyanne 'must have done some bad things' to George Conway Posted: 22 Nov 2019 07:00 AM PST  Kellyanne Conway, special counselor to President Trump, is known to berate journalists who speculate about her marriage to George Conway, a prominent Trump critic. In an interview with "Fox & Friends" on Friday, the president did just that.
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| California school shooting shines light on murky 'ghost gun' world Posted: 22 Nov 2019 04:04 AM PST  AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - "Ghost guns" like the one a 16-year-old boy used to kill two classmates and injure three others at a California high school last week are self-assembled, virtually untraceable - and completely legal. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's department confirmed that the .45-caliber pistol that Nathaniel Berhow used in the shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, on his 16th birthday was made from a kit. Kits can be purchased online or at gun shows, as long as the frames are not fully functional.
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| Judge orders father of supermodels Bella and Gigi Hadid to pull down $100 million Bel Air mega-mansion Posted: 23 Nov 2019 12:37 PM PST  The property tycoon father of supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid has been ordered by a judge to demolish his half-built $100 million Bel Air mega-mansion, which has been dubbed the "Starship Enterprise". Mohamed Hadid has been involved in a long legal battle over the palatial 30,000 sq ft residence after neighbours complained about its size. A judge in Los Angeles Superior Court decided it was a "clear and present danger" to other properties in the area. The ruling came after a structural engineer said supporting piles were not driven far enough into the ground underneath the hillside property. The judge said: "If this house came down the hill it would take a portion of the neighbourhood with it." Following the ruling Mr Hadid told TMZ the house "has not moved a millimetre! It has never been an imminent danger to the neighbours." The property developer is the father of supermodel Bella Hadid and her sister Gigi Credit: E-PRESS / BACKGRID UK He also said many city inspectors had monitored the construction process since it began in 2012, and concerns were not raised until years later. The court heard demolition would take six months and cost several million dollars. It was the latest development in a long saga over the project, which was to include an IMAX cinema. Mr Hadid, a property developer, hoped to ultimately sell the mansion for nine figures. In 2017 he told Town & Country Magazine: "Demolish this house? Never! This house will last forever. Bel Air will fall before this house will." The same year, he was sentenced to three years probation and 200 hours of community service after pleading no contest to three charges of violating building regulations. Several neighbours sued Mr Hadid claiming they lived in "constant fear" of the hillside collapsing, and that their "privacy and serenity was invaded by the illegal and unsightly structure looming above them." Mr Hadid responded that he was the victim of "witch hunt" and the neighbours' claims were "total nonsense."
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| 515,000 pounds of pork product without food safety inspection recalled after anonymous tip Posted: 23 Nov 2019 06:43 AM PST  These items were produced by Morris Meat Packing, which operates in Maywood, Illinois, between 25 November 2017 and 9 November 2019.
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| These 5 Weapons Show Us How The U.S. Marines Would Fight North Korea Posted: 23 Nov 2019 06:00 AM PST  Let's hope it never has to happen.
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| Many voters say they're OK with a gay president, but America isn't. I don't buy it. Posted: 23 Nov 2019 05:51 AM PST  It's an interesting if puzzling dichotomy: Some voters say they would not penalize Pete Buttigieg for being gay — but are fearful others would.
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| How the leader of a notorious Chicago street gang evolved into an ISIS supporter Posted: 22 Nov 2019 05:05 PM PST  The gang leader thought he had provided $500 in cash to man fighting for ISIS in Syria. In reality, it was an undercover FBI agent.
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| ‘Give that dog a license.’ Black lab seen on video doing donuts in Florida cul-de-sac Posted: 22 Nov 2019 09:18 AM PST  His owner reportedly left the car running with the dog inside.
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| Impeachment witnesses tested Republican defenses of Trump one by one Posted: 22 Nov 2019 12:47 PM PST  While it remains highly unlikely that the Democrats' House impeachment inquiry will lead to a conviction of Donald Trump by the Republican-controlled Senate, the testimony did succeed in straining the defenses put forth by the president and his allies.
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| Putin hands awards to widows of men killed in mysterious military test Posted: 22 Nov 2019 03:13 AM PST  Russian President Vladimir Putin has handed top state awards to the widows of five scientists killed in an accident while testing what he called an advanced weapons system without equal in the world. The five men died on Aug. 8 in what their employer, state nuclear agency Rosatom, said was an accident during a rocket test on a sea platform off northern Russia, an incident which caused radiation levels in the surrounding area to briefly spike. Thomas DiNanno, a senior U.S. State Department official, said last month that Washington had determined that the explosion was the result of a nuclear reaction which occurred during the recovery of a Russian nuclear-powered cruise missile after a failed test.
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| Internet outage forces Iranians to resort to old ways Posted: 23 Nov 2019 03:48 AM PST  The internet restrictions, for their part, apparently aimed to temper shows of dissent and anger over the move and stop footage of the unrest from being shared. Brigadier General Salar Abnoosh, a deputy head of the Basij volunteer militia, said Friday that the internet outage had helped to "disrupt the complicated" plans by Iran's enemies. On Saturday -- day seven of the internet restrictions and the start of the working week in Iran -- people in Tehran were trying to overcome problems brought on by the outage.
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| 50 Great Gadget and Gear Gifts for the Holidays Posted: 22 Nov 2019 11:03 AM PST |
| Former Iowa governor says Biden has ‘heart of a president’ Posted: 23 Nov 2019 09:01 AM PST  In endorsing Democrat Joe Biden for president on Saturday, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack said, above all, the former vice president's personal losses give him "the capacity to comfort" and "the need to heal" a divided nation. More fundamentally, the death of Biden's first wife and infant daughter in a car accident in 1972 and his son Beau's death from cancer in 2015 have given Biden a deep sense of suffering important to understanding the day-to-day struggles, and personal pain, of many Americans. The endorsement comes as Biden has slipped from being the early favorite in Iowa last spring to trailing newcomers, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
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| World War III? In 1956, Russia Almost Fought Britain, France, and Israel With Nuclear Weapons Posted: 22 Nov 2019 05:16 AM PST  The Suez Canal Crisis was a dangerous gambit.
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| Otto Warmbier’s Parents Will Work to Have North Korean Assets Seized Posted: 22 Nov 2019 05:48 AM PST  The parents of former U.S. hostage Otto Warmbier, who died in 2017 after being released from North Korea in a coma, have announced they will attempt to seize North Korean business assets around the world to punish the country's government over its human-rights abuses.Otto Warmbier was convicted in a North Korean court after he tried to steal a propaganda poster from his hotel. He was released to the U.S. in a vegetative state a year later.Otto's parents have alleged he was tortured. North Korea has denied the allegations, asserting it was the "biggest victim" in Otto's death and, without evidence, attributing Warmbier's death to botulism."My mission would be to hold North Korea responsible, to recover and discover their assets around the world," Fred Warmbier said at a Friday press conference in Seoul, South Korea, according to the Associated Press. Fred and his wife Cindy had been invited to speak at a forum for a group representing South Korean families whose members were abducted by North Korea over the course of the 1950-53 Korean War."We feel that if you force North Korea to engage the world in a legal standpoint, then they will have to ultimately have a dialogue," he continued. "They are not going to come and have a dialogue with us any other way."The Warmbiers plan to pressure European governments to close hostels run by North Korea. They are already pursuing legal action against a hostel on the grounds of North Korea's embassy in Berlin."We cannot give up, we can't give them a pass. We have to fight with all of our power," Cindy Warmbier said at the conference.President Trump has repeatedly sought to negotiate the removal of nuclear weapons from North Korea, and became the first American president to meet with a North Korean leader during negotiations. Those negotiations are currently stalled.
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| 4 reasons Democrats have an uphill climb on Donald Trump impeachment and removal Posted: 22 Nov 2019 02:00 AM PST  If the ending of this movie is inevitable, the undecided public may move toward the Republican claim that the whole thing is a waste of time and money.
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| Chinese spy defects to Australia with trove of intel: report Posted: 22 Nov 2019 09:18 PM PST  A Chinese spy has defected to Australia with a trove of intelligence on China's political interference operations in Hong Kong, Taiwan and elsewhere, according to a media report Saturday. The Nine network newspapers said the defector, named as Wang "William" Liqiang, had given Australia's counter-espionage agency the identities of China's senior military intelligence officers in Hong Kong and provided details of how they funded and conducted operations in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia.
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| German soldier who posed as Syrian refugee to face new terror trial Posted: 23 Nov 2019 07:43 AM PST  A German soldier who lived a double life posing as a Syrian refugee is to face a new trial on charges of planning a far-Right terror attack. Lieutenant Franco Albrecht spent more than a year posing as a Christian refugee from Syria, and was given a place in a German government refugee shelter. Prosecutors allege he was planning to assassinate high-profile figures in a false flag terror attack and pin the blame on the fictitious Syrian. The original terror charges against Lt Albrecht were dismissed for lack of evidence in a court hearing last year, but Germany's highest criminal court this week upheld a prosecution appeal and ordered a new trial. Lt Albrecht's arrest in 2017 stunned Germany and made headlines around the world. As a high-flying cadet officer, he trained at France's prestigious St Cyr Military academy under an exchange programme and was entertained as a guest of the British army at Sandhurst. Lt Albrecht's defence lawyers say he masqueraded as a refugee in order to expose the shortcomings of the German asylum system and its failure properly to identify those entering the country. They deny that he was planning a terror attack Lt Albrecht was a guest at Sandhurst while he was training as part of an exchange programme at France's prestigious St Cyr military academy Credit: Private Germany's federal court of justice ruled this week that there is sufficient evidence to support the charge Lt Albrecht was planning to assassinate public figures and ordered that he must face it in court. But it ruled there was no evidence to support the charge that he was planning to pin the blame for an attack on Syrian refugees. Prosecutors allege that Lt Albrecht procured firearms and ammunition and prepared a list of possible assassinations targets including Heiko Maas, the foreign minister, former President Joachim Gauck and Anetta Kahane, a prominent human rights activist. They allege he scoped out a car park near the activist's office as a possible assassination site. Lawyers for Lt Albrecht deny the allegations and say he obtained weapons as a member of the "prepper" scene. They say the alleged "death list" is a list of people the soldier wished to contact to discuss the political situation, and that he only visited the car park in an attempt to meet Ms Kahane. Lawyers for the soldier have not commented on this week's decision by the appeals court. Lt Albrecht has been suspended from duty but remains an officer in the German army until the case is resolved. A date for a new trial has not yet been set.
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| Iran Has A New Missile, Should Israel Be Worried? Posted: 23 Nov 2019 09:00 AM PST  Iran wants to give its regional allies precision-guided missiles.
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| Trump launches angry attack on impeachment witness because 'she wouldn't hang my picture in the embassy' Posted: 22 Nov 2019 07:53 AM PST  Donald Trump has lashed out at former US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in a rambling phone call to Fox News, complaining that she was slow to hang his portrait in the to Ukrainian embassy, adding: "This was not an angel."Ms Yovanovitch served the US in Ukraine from August 2016 until May 2019, when Mr Trump ousted her following what she called a "smear campaign" by Mr Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
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| Cuba acknowledges "vestiges" of racism, launches program to fight it Posted: 22 Nov 2019 04:26 PM PST ![Cuba acknowledges "vestiges" of racism, launches program to fight it]( "Cuba acknowledges \"vestiges\" of racism, launches program to fight it") Cuba's government has launched a program to combat racism, acknowledging that a problem that Fidel Castro tried to eliminate after the 1959 leftist revolution remains unresolved. The program aims to identify steps to fight discrimination, broaden education on Cuba's African legacy and start a public debate on racial issues, Culture Vice Minister Fernando Rojas told a cabinet meeting, according to state-run media on Friday. "Everyone recognizes our revolution has been the social and political process that has possibly done most to eliminate racial discrimination," state-run media quoted President Miguel Diaz-Canel as saying.
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| Philippines marks massacre anniversary with calls for justice Posted: 23 Nov 2019 10:31 AM PST  Relatives of 58 people slain in the Philippines' worst political massacre held a tearful vigil Saturday to mark a decade since the killings, voicing anger at the slow pace of justice. Tearful family members lit candles and released white balloons as children sang a chorus calling for justice at a southern Philippine town where 58 people, including 32 media workers, were slaughtered and dumped in roadside pits in November 2009. Ampatuan family dynasty leaders, who ruled the impoverished southern province of Maguindanao, are charged with organising the killing in a bid to quash an election challenge from local rival Esmael Mangudadatu.
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| Trump says Hong Kong would be ‘obliterated in 14 minutes’ without him Posted: 22 Nov 2019 09:04 AM PST  President Trump said Friday he had saved Hong Kong from being destroyed by persuading Chinese President Xi Jinping to hold off on sending in troops to crush the pro-democracy movement there.
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| Buttigieg, Fellow Dems Seek Distance from Warren’s Pledge ‘Never to Give Ambassadorial Positions to Wealthy Donors’ Posted: 22 Nov 2019 05:37 AM PST  Senator Elizabeth Warren's Democratic primary opponents have proven hesitant to accept her challenge to "never to give ambassadorial positions to wealthy donors.""Anyone who gives a big donation, don't ask to be an ambassador," Warren said during Wednesday's debate, after taking a swipe at Trump donor and Ambassador to the European Union Gordon. "I ask everyone running for president to join me in that," Warren said Wednesday, before her campaign followed up with a tweet Thursday.> Ambassador Gordon Sondland got his job after writing a $1 million check to Donald Trump's inaugural committee. This is Washington corruption at its worst. I've pledged never to give ambassadorial positions to wealthy donors—and every candidate should do the same. pic.twitter.com/kXG6jAJ34K> > -- Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) November 21, 2019When reporters reached out other campaigns to see their interest in the proposal, most rebuffed the offer.South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg did not rule donors out of consideration. "I'll certainly commit that anybody I appoint to any position will be qualified and somebody who will do a good job serving the United States," he said. "I certainly believe that any presidential appointment should be driven by the qualifications of the appointee."Andrew Yang echoed Buttigieg's sentiment. "I certainly think there are other ways to select ambassadors than solely on how much money they got," but refused to go as far as Warren in comments to HuffPost after the debate."I think that's completely up to her," Kamala Harris surrogate Stephanie Morales said after the debate. "That's the beauty of having different candidates voice their different opinions. As much passion as Sen. Harris put into her comments about Black women, she didn't turn around and say, 'Elizabeth Warren, you need to pledge to do these things.'"The only positive approval came from fellow progressive candidate Bernie Sanders, who tweeted Thursday that "it is an outrage that throughout the history of this country, presidential administrations have been filled with wealthy campaign contributors."> It is an outrage that throughout the history of this country, presidential administrations have been filled with wealthy campaign contributors.> > Here's my commitment: I will fill my administration with my donors—the working class of this country who give an average of $18 apiece. https://t.co/BMcSdEk5Rh> > -- Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 21, 2019
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| Haunting photos of the 'Forbidden City,' an abandoned military base that hasn't been used in 25 years Posted: 23 Nov 2019 05:51 AM PST  The "Forbidden City" was used as the Nazi command center during World War II and housed 40,000 Soviet soldiers during the Cold War.
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| Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Grand Canyon transforms into winter wonderland Posted: 22 Nov 2019 07:15 AM PST  We may only be approaching Thanksgiving, but it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Grand Canyon.
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| Giuliani Says Biden Documents to Be Released ‘If I Disappear’ Posted: 23 Nov 2019 02:37 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Rudy Giuliani, a focus of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump's foreign policy dealings in Ukraine, suggested on Twitter that he has dirt on the Biden family that would be released were he to get into trouble.Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, also described as "sarcastic" a statement he made recently about having "an insurance policy" should he fall out of favor with the president.That followed an interview with Fox News during which he was asked whether Trump might soon conclude that Giuliani is a liability, and throw him "under the bus.""This is ridiculous," Giuliani, 75, said. "We are very good friends. He knows what I did was in order to defend him, not to dig up dirt on Biden."Without offering proof, Giuliani tweeted that he had "files in my safe about the Biden Family's 4 decade monetizing" of the former vice president and senator's office. "If I disappear, it will immediately appear."Giuliani's tweet also referred to his "RICO chart." Mentioning the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the federal law aimed at prosecuting organized crime, may imply Giuliani still has information that's not been released publicly from his days as a U.S. Attorney.Also on Saturday Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, said on Twitter that "the Mafia couldn't kill me so NO, I am not worried about the swamp press."It was a busy day on social media for the former New York City mayor, who's said to be under investigation for possible campaign finance violations and a failure to register as a foreign agent. He said, again without elaborating, that he "plans to bring out a massive pay-for-play scheme under the Obama administration that will devastate the Democrat Party."During two weeks of impeachment hearings Giuliani was mentioned multiple times by State Department officials testifying on whether Trump improperly withheld military aid to Ukraine. Two of Giuliani's associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were charged in October in a campaign finance scheme.To contact the reporter on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Matthew G. Miller at mmiller144@bloomberg.net, Ian Fisher, Virginia Van NattaFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Biden snaps at Fox News reporter for question about Hunter Biden's illegitimate son Posted: 22 Nov 2019 08:05 PM PST  Hunter Biden is the father; Raymond Arroyo breaks down his 'Friday Follies.'
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| Through the wire -- Palestinians risk all to work in Israel Posted: 22 Nov 2019 04:42 PM PST  It is well before dawn when the first work deprived Palestinians arrive to sneak through a two-metre hole cut in the metal fence that is supposed to keep them out of Israel. The men are among the thousands of Palestinians working in Israel illegally, risking bad working conditions, exploitation and jail for a chance of employment. On the morning AFP visited, Yunis, from Dahariya in the southern West Bank, was one of hundreds running the gauntlet as police patrolled the area.
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| Syracuse students have been besieged by racist attacks, and more than a dozen told us they're scared and angry with the school's tepid response Posted: 22 Nov 2019 03:18 PM PST  Insider spoke with more than 15 students about the recent spate of racist incidents to sweep Syracuse University's campus in upstate New York.
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| Iowa Supreme Court says stand-your-ground law has limits Posted: 22 Nov 2019 08:11 AM PST ![Iowa Supreme Court says stand-your-ground law has limits]( "Iowa Supreme Court says stand-your-ground law has limits") An Iowa law allowing people to use lethal force to defend themselves doesn't apply to defendants who engaged in criminal activity prior to the perceived threat, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday. Baltazar maintains he feared Mercado had a weapon and was acting in self-defense under the state's stand-your-ground law. The Court of Appeals faulted Baltazar's trial court for giving a faulty jury instruction in his case that did not abide by the state's new stand-your-ground law, which was enacted 27 days before the killing.
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| UPDATE 1-China attacks U.S. at G20 as the world's biggest source of instability Posted: 23 Nov 2019 04:18 AM PST ![UPDATE 1-China attacks U.S. at G20 as the world's biggest source of instability]( "UPDATE 1-China attacks U.S. at G20 as the world's biggest source of instability") The United States is the world's biggest source of instability and its politicians are going around the world baselessly smearing China, the Chinese government's top diplomat said on Saturday in a stinging attack at a G20 meeting in Japan. Relations between the world's two largest economies have nose-dived amid a bitter trade war - which they are trying to resolve - and arguments over human rights, Hong Kong and U.S. support for Chinese-claimed Taiwan. Meeting Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok on the sidelines of a G20 foreign ministers meeting in the Japanese city of Nagoya, Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi did not hold back in his criticism of the United States.
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| Pennsylvania Governor Vetoes Bill Banning Down-Syndrome Abortion Posted: 22 Nov 2019 10:02 AM PST  Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have prohibited women from choosing abortion because of a Down-syndrome diagnosis."This legislation is a restriction on women and medical professionals and interferes with women's health care and the crucial decision-making between patients and their physicians," the Democratic governor said in a statement. "Physicians and their patients must be able to make choices about medical procedures based on best practices and standards of care."Abortion is legal in Pennsylvania during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy for any reason except the gender of the fetus. The bill, which passed the Republican-controlled legislature a day earlier, aimed to protect against abortions over a prenatal Down-syndrome diagnosis as well, although it included exceptions for rape, incest, and medical emergencies.Wold argued that the bill was unconstitutional and "not consistent with the fundamental rights" protected by the 14th Amendment, which guarantees the right to privacy."Further, I am not aware of a single disability-rights group that supports this bill," Wolf continued. "I support continuing the bipartisan work that's been done to help people with disabilities. I also believe there is much more Pennsylvania could do to help women and families facing complex pregnancies. However, this bill does not aid in either of these efforts."Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates also objected to the bill, saying it is unconstitutional and nearly impossible to enforce.According to the National Down Syndrome Society, one in 700 babies in the U.S., about 6,000 a year, is born with Down syndrome, a genetic condition caused by the presence of an extra chromosome and marked by developmental and physical growth delays.Wolf's decision jives with a federal-appeals court's October ruling that Ohio may not enforce a law barring doctors from performing abortions on mothers who want the procedure because of a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome.The governor is a vocal abortion rights supporter and also rejected a measure in 2017 that would have banned elective abortions after 20 weeks, a week earlier than the youngest premature baby has survived. In August, Wolf's administration also announced plans to close two state centers for the intellectually and developmentally disabled, including some with Down syndrome. A previous closure of a similar facility in Pennsylvania resulted in the deaths of eleven of the 85 former residents.
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| Bolton Allies Cut Out ‘Three Amigos’ for Direct Line to Kyiv Posted: 22 Nov 2019 07:00 AM PST  Sergei Gapon/GettyIn the days following a July meeting at the White House, senior officials in the National Security Council reached out to their Ukrainian counterparts in an effort to circumvent U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and the "amigos" to establish a direct line of communication with Kyiv, according to officials in both the U.S. and Ukraine.Charles Kupperman, President Donald Trump's former deputy national security adviser, contacted Ukrainian officials close to President Volodymyr Zelensky via telephone in mid-July after a tumultuous meeting at the White House in which Sondland told the Kyiv representatives that they would need to launch certain domestic investigations in exchange for a presidential meet in Washington, according to three officials familiar with the matter. Kupperman was not the only official to reach out, the sources said.The meeting in question took place July 10 at the White House between senior Ukrainian officials, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, and other U.S. officials, including the president's former Russia adviser Fiona Hill, national security official Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, former top diplomat for Ukraine Kurt Volker, and Sondland. The Ukrainians visited Washington to discuss a roadmap for U.S.-Ukrainian relations that included how the two countries could work together in the energy sector. But as The Daily Beast reported last week, that meeting turned sour quickly.Kupperman, who was on the Trump-Zelensky July 25 call, and other national security officials' outreach was meant to course correct a meeting that left the Ukrainian officials uncomfortable and confused about Washington's messaging, sources said. The overtures underscore the extent to which Bolton's National Security Council wanted to work around Sondland and others he coordinated with in their efforts to convince Ukraine to launch investigations into Burisma, the natural gas company on whose board Hunter Biden sat, and the 2016 presidential election. Witnesses in the House impeachment inquiry testified that Bolton equated Sondland's work to a "drug deal" that he had cooked up with acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. Trump fired Bolton in September.Fiona Hill Ties Trump's Ukraine Pressure Back to RussiagateBoth Kupperman and the National Security Council did not respond to requests for comment for this story.Sources said the need for a course correction with Ukraine came as a result of the conversations that took place in the Ward Room of the White House after the official meeting with Bolton July 10. Sondland moved the conversation into the Ward Room of the White House. Bolton did not attend but asked Hill to go into the room and report back on what was being said, according to Hill's public testimony in front of House investigators Thursday. Hill told House investigators in her closed-door deposition last month that Bolton told her to tell John Eisenberg, the National Security Council counsel: "I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up on this. You go and tell him what you've heard and what I've said."That's when Hill went to the Ward Room. Sondland had again brought up the investigations with the Ukrainians, including Oleksandr Danylyuk, the top national security official in Ukraine, and Zelensky aide Andriy Yermak. The Daily Beast previously reported that Sondland grew emotional in the meeting and began to demand the investigations from the Ukrainians. Hill told House investigators the Ukrainian officials at one point were asked to move into the hallway and that Vindman told Sondland bringing up the investigations was inappropriate. Hill said she too stepped in to address Sondland's remarks."I pointed out that this wasn't an appropriate place to be having a discussion about what was going to be a deliberative process about how one goes about setting up a meeting and the timing of it and the content of it," Hill said in her impeachment deposition in October. "It's completely inappropriate to have, you know, the ambassador to the EU take the Ukrainians down to the Ward Room to have a huddle on next steps about getting a meeting with the president of the United States."In the weeks that followed, the National Security Council kept in contact with senior Zelensky officials in an attempt to re-establish the normal lines of communication with the Ukrainian national security apparatus. Like Bolton, Kupperman left his post in September. The House subpoenaed him to appear for a deposition. However, Kupperman filed a lawsuit last month to seek a judicial ruling on whether he is required by law to testify. Last week Trump moved to dismiss that lawsuit, claiming Kupperman should follow his direction instead of seeking legal guidance.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| China's Mysterious Stealth JH-XX Bomber: A Threat to the U.S. Military? Posted: 21 Nov 2019 11:51 PM PST  Here is everything we know about it.
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| Syria Kurds say repatriated US child, German and children Posted: 23 Nov 2019 07:25 AM PST  Syria's Kurds have handed over an American toddler and three German children and their mother to their respective governments, a Kurdish official and a Kurdish source said on Saturday. Abdelkarim Omar, a senior official with the Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria, said the handover went ahead on Friday. "An American child and three German children with their mother were handed over to their governments," he said in a statement on Twitter.
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| Our 20 Favorite Car Toys for Kids Posted: 22 Nov 2019 12:34 PM PST |
| 2 arrested during raids into deadly Halloween party shooting Posted: 22 Nov 2019 01:22 PM PST  Two 29-year-old men were arrested during raids conducted as part of a multi-agency investigation into a shooting at a San Francisco Bay Area Halloween party that killed five people, authorities said Friday. Domico Dones of Martinez and Frederick Johnson of Vallejo were arrested Thursday morning, Contra Costa Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee said in a statement. Dones was charged by Contra Costa county prosecutors Friday with being a felon in possession of a handgun with a laser scope and ammunition.
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