His fallback argument is that presidents have full authority to shape foreign policy, even to help their own campaigns.

National Security Council official Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman brought his receipts to Tuesday’s impeachment hearings when Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) attempted to question Vindman’s judgment, reading aloud a recent employment evaluation describing him as “brilliant.”Referencing the previous testimony of NSC official Tim Morrison, Jordan noted that Morrison claimed he and others raised concerns about Vindman’s judgment and believed he may have leaked info to the press.“Your former boss, Dr. [Fiona] Hill, had concerns about your judgment,” Jordan added. “Your colleagues had concerns about your judgment and your colleagues felt that there were times when you leaked information. Any idea why they have those impressions, Colonel Vindman?”Vindman, meanwhile, pulled out the last performance evaluation that Hill had given him, dated this past July.“Alex is a top 1% military officer and the best Army officer I have worked with in my 15 years of government service,” Vindman read from the document. “‘He is brilliant, unflappable, and exercises excellent judgment’-I’m sorry-‘Was exemplary during numerous visits,’ so forth and so on. I think you get the idea.”As for Morrison’s remarks, Vindman stated that they had only recently started working together and that Morrison hadn’t been there very long and it could have been a clash of cultures. Jordan, seemingly a bit shaken, quickly moved on to asking Vindman if he ever leaked information, something the veteran denied.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.

Things are starting to get more intense.

Valiant Lady has a pretty impressive seven-day itinerary which will see guests leave the port of Barcelona, Spain.

A former employee of Britain's consulate in Hong Kong said Chinese secret police beat him, deprived him of sleep and shackled him in an attempt to force him to give information about activists leading pro-democracy protests. Hong Kong, which was returned to China by Britain in 1997, has been convulsed by sometimes violent protests and mass demonstrations, the biggest political crisis for Beijing since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Simon Cheng, a Hong Kong citizen who worked for the British government for almost two years, said he was tortured while detained for 15 days as he returned from a trip to mainland China in August.

The Radio 1 presenter is in the royal bad books.