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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  Rep. Dan Kildee on whether impeachment hearings could hurt Democrats in 2020

  FOX News Videos
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  Nancy Pelosi suggests whistleblower complaint prompted release of Ukraine aid

  CBS News Videos

NATO ally expels undercover Russian spy 

WASHINGTON — On Oct. 30, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry delivered a rare warning to a Russian diplomat stationed in Sofia, the capital: Leave the country within 24 hours. The expelled diplomat, Vladimir Anatolyevich Rusyaev is affiliated with the Russian military intelligence service, or the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly known as the GRU, according to a Western intelligence source. The intelligence source provided Yahoo News with a document describing Rusyaev's career history, including a current photograph.

Palestinian journalists protest wounding of colleague

Jerusalem (AFP) - "The eyes of truth will never be blinded," protesters' placards read, as Palestinian journalists wore eye patches Sunday to decry the wounding of a colleague in the occupied West Bank. Muath Amarneh has been in an Israeli hospital since he was hit in the eye Friday during clashes between Israeli border police and Palestinian demonstrators in the village of Surif, close to Hebron in the southern West Bank. Dozens of Palestinian journalists rallied Sunday -- protesting with one eye covered in solidarity.

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.

Here's why Europe has mostly ditched wealth taxes over the last 25 years — even as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders seek them for the US

Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are leading the charge with proposals to tax the fortunes of the wealthiest Americans to help pay for their sweeping agendas. Where the wealth tax differs is the annual levies the government could collect on assets like stocks, paintings, yachts, artworks, and vacation homes — essentially, everything a person owns. Usually, progressives cast Europe as a model for the cradle-to-grave social benefits that nations like Norway provide because of steeper tax rates on richer citizens.

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.

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?

  Yahoo News 360

Crowd honors tree as Havana celebrates 500th anniversary

Hundreds of people in Cuba's capital stood in line to kiss, touch or walk around a towering silk floss tree Saturday in a nod to tradition as they celebrate Havana's 500th anniversary this weekend. The event comes as Cuba deals with an ailing economy and increasingly tense relations with the U.S., concerns that were briefly cast aside as residents prepared for a gala event Saturday night featuring fireworks, music and international dignitaries. “Havana grows, lives, sings, dances and dreams,” said Félix Julio Alfonso, a professor who spoke before granting the public access to the revered silk floss tree.

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.

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

First African-American FBI agent finally gets recognition

The first African-American FBI special agent, who was hired 100 years ago, is finally getting recognition. There are no known photographs of James Wormley Jones, but there is a record of his hiring. Inside FBI headquarters in Washington is an archive room filled with hundreds of thousands of documents and a lone application for the job of special agent.

Santa Clarita shooting: What we know about the Saugus High School suspected gunman, victims

Police are still searching for a motive in the shooting at a Southern California high school Thursday morning. Authorities have conducted more than 40 interviews but have not uncovered a manifesto, diary, suicide note or writings, Capt. Kent Wegener of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office said at a press conference Friday afternoon. The suspect, identified Friday as Nathaniel Tennosuke Berhow, fatally shot two classmates and injured three others before shooting himself in the head with his last bullet during the 16-second attack Thursday morning, said Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

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  Man, young boy injured in shooting at South Jersey high school football game

  WPVI – Philadelphia
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  Santa Clarita school shooting: Boy who killed two students dies in hospital as police search for motive

  The Independent

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.

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.

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.

‘I’m a weird one’: Tulsi Gabbard draws unusual mix of fans on the road

It gave Gabbard an opportunity to see the eclectic mix of supporters her curious 2020 presidential campaign has managed to assemble: a mostly male grab-bag of veterans, anti-war activists, ex-Bernie Sanders supporters, ex-Jill Stein votersand at least one Donald Trump fan. An ex-navy seaman was there, bantering with Gabbard about her service in the army.

Time for hip waders: Venice sees record 3rd exceptional tide

Venice was hit Sunday by a record third exceptional tide in the same week while other parts of Italy struggled with a series of weather woes, from rain-swollen rivers to high winds to an out-of-season avalanche. Stores and museums in Venice were mostly closed in the hardest-hit area around St. Mark's Square, but tourists donned high rubber boots or even hip waders to witness and photograph the spectacle. The doors of the famed St. Mark's Basilica were securely shut to the public, an authorities took precautions — stacking sandbags in canal-side windows — to prevent salt-laden water from entering the crypt again.

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  Venice braces for another exceptional tide, tourists flee

  Associated Press
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  Venice hit by record 3rd exceptional tide in same week as Italian officials warn of city sinking

  KABC – Los Angeles

Elizabeth Warren takes risk with ad blasting billionaires

Elizabeth Warren, one of the leading Democratic presidential candidates, has stepped up her assault on billionaires -- a rallying cry popular with her base, but one that could stymie her efforts to garner wider support among US voters. The 70-year-old US senator from Massachusetts on Thursday unveiled a new ad in an appearance on CNBC, a business news network that often criticizes her, in which she takes on the ultra-rich. The one-minute campaign ad shows clips of several leading businessmen criticizing her plans for a wealth tax and predicting economic ruin if she is elected to succeed Donald Trump, a billionaire himself.

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

Forgotten Genocide: How a Quarter of Europe’s Roma Were Murdered by the Nazis, then Erased From History

An eyewitness account by a Holocaust survivor—unearthed for a new exhibition in London—describes the conditions in the “gypsy” section of Auschwitz as even more inhumane than the rest of the appalling facility. “The conditions were worse than in the other camps,” wrote eyewitness Hermann Langbein in 1945. The gypsies were still wearing the clothes that they had been given upon arrival… footwear was missing… The latrines were built in such a way that they were practically unusable for the gypsy children.

Minneapolis Police Admit to Discovering 1,500 Untested Rape Kits, Spanning Over 30 Years, Found in Storage

The Minneapolis Police Department announced Friday that a 2015 count of rape kits collected from survivors came up terribly short, missing more than 1,500 rape kits held in police storage facilities. Minnesota passed a law in 2015 that required law enforcement agencies to audit their backlogged kits. But after conducting a new review this year, the Minneapolis police said at a press conference on Friday, that 1,700 untested rape kits spanning over 30 years have been discovered — far more than the 194 kits found in 2015.