From 'Anonymous,' key excerpts from inside Trump White House on Putin, Hillary

Key excerpts from "A Warning," a book by an anonymous senior administration official about President Trump and his administration.

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Despite House rules against it, Stefanik tries to question impeachment hearing witness

During open hearings in the House impeachment inquiry, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik tried to address Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch when Committee Chairman Adam Schiff stopped her. "Under the house resolute 660, you are not allowed to yield time except to minority counsel."

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A Blue Wave Looks Poised to Wash Over Louisiana

Jonathan Bachman/ReutersVoters will deliver another verdict on whether a moderate Democrat can survive in a red Trump state when they go to the polls Saturday in Louisiana’s run-off race for governor. “When you’re a Southern Democrat, you’re fully aware that things might not work out,” said Democratic strategist James Carville. “But in this instance, I’d rather be us than them.” “Us” for Carville, the “ragin’ Cajun,” is Democrat John Bel Edwards, running for re-election against Republican businessman Eddie Rispone. Democrats are hoping for a second big win in a red state ten days after Democratic challenger Andy Beshear won the governor’s race in Kentucky.  Democrats’ Big Night Is Bad News for Trump“If John Bel wins, the one big story is impeachment at worst is a wash,” says Carville. “If it was bad for the Democrats, we would have picked that up in Kentucky. We’re not getting any indication there is a backlash.” That would be different than in the elections that followed the contentious Senate vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, when a backlash hurt Democrats. “I saw it after Kavanaugh, I felt it after Kavanaugh,” Carville says, but now “I would rather be a House Democrat than a Senate Republican. Let the Senate stew,” he says.   What Carville will be watching for on Saturday is whether Edwards can hold the 34 percent share of the white vote that is critical to victory. Edwards, a graduate of West Point and an Army veteran, is as conservative on social issues as any Republican. He signed an abortion law that is one of the toughest in the nation, banning the procedure as early as six weeks. He cites his Catholic faith as a centerpiece in his life and politics. He’s a Second Amendment enthusiast, and his supporters worry that a Saturday vote competes with a day of hunting.“He likes to tout how many times he’s been to the White House,” says Louisiana pollster John Couvillon. That’s up to nine times, including a state dinner last year. “Edwards is not portraying himself as an enemy of the president,” Couvillon told the Daily Beast. “He doesn’t want to give partisans an extra reason to vote against him.”What Couvillon will be looking for on Saturday is the strength of black turnout. On Election Day last month, 974,000 voters went to the polls in the state’s “jungle primary,” in which all candidates are on the same ballot, regardless of party, with the top two then facing off if no one tops 50 percent. He expects turnout on Election Day to increase by 50,000 to 100,000 in the runoff. Early voting was up substantially in the runoff. In the October vote, there were 386,000 early or absentee ballots. Of those voters, 25 percent were black, and 41 percent were Republican. (Overall, 31 percent of Louisianans are black, and 31 percent of the electorate is Republican, which some overlap between those groups). In the runoff, there were 498,000 early voters as of Wednesday night—an increase of 112,000 from October. Of those early voters, Couvillon identified 60,000 new voters, who hadn’t turned out in October. Forty-one percent of those new voters, he said, are black, and 29 percent are Republican—meaning the group is much blacker and less Republican than the overall electorate, “much like the Obama phenomenon.” Under Louisiana law, voters identify their race when they cast their ballot. “You have this group of 60,000 that showed up out of nowhere,” he says, “and they’re much more Democrat-friendly. Republicans think Democrats are just getting them to the polls a week early. My thinking is that Democrats expanded the pie.” That, of course, is the dream of Democrats—that anger about Trump has brought new voters into their fold. That tale will be told on Saturday. The other factor impacting the vote is dissension in the Republican camp. The October primary included, along with Edwards and Rispone, Republican House member Ralph Abraham. Rispone went after Abraham hammer and tongs for his high absentee rate for congressional votes, which was fair, but he also accused him of being disloyal to Trump and voting with Nancy Pelosi against Trump’s wall. The bad blood in the party boiled over and Abraham’s son-in-law contributed $5,000 to the Edwards campaign. In a tight election, Rispone can’t afford any defections. Trump’s rally in Shreveport Thursday night was his second in the state in recent weeks, and at the first one, while Abraham was still on the ballot, the two GOP contenders didn’t appear on the stage at the same time. There’s no real love for Rispone in the party. “His unabashed allegiance to Trump is the only thing that keeps Abraham in the game,” says Couvillon, who describes Rispone as a Louisiana version of Sheldon Adelson, someone who gives a lot of money to conservative causes and who has ran a “thoroughly mediocre campaign and he had $12 million to spend.” If Edwards wins, it would be the second example this month of a Democrat triumphing in a red state. Larry Sabato, founder and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, has the race leaning Democrat. “We don’t know of any poll that has Rispone up,” he told the Daily Beast, while noting that the race remains too close to call. While Trump’s 11th hour visit to Kentucky failed to elect Bevins, Sabato says Bevins—who finally conceded Thursday—would have lost by more without it. In Louisiana, says Sabato, “the big question is Trump’s election eve rally. He might be able to pull Rispone across the finish line.” Read more at The Daily Beast.Get 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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Man kills wife, three young sons in San Diego home: police

Three other boys, ages 5, 9 and 11, were taken to a hospital where two of them died, San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said during a news conference. "When the officers arrived on the scene, they were able to look into one of the windows and see a small child inside covered in blood," San Diego Police Lieutenant Matt Dobbs said.

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American Airlines flight attendants have literally begged not to work on the Boeing 737 Max when it returns, union boss says (BA)

Lori Bassani heads the union for 28,000 American Airlines flight attendants, and she warned of genuine fear among staff over returning to the 737 Max.

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Australia intel chair blocked from China after criticising Beijing

Australia's parliamentary intelligence committee head, who has previously criticised Beijing, said he had been blocked from entering China due to his "frankness about the Chinese Communist Party". Andrew Hastie warned several months ago that the world's approach to containing China's rise resembles the "catastrophic failure" to prevent the advance of Nazi Germany. Hastie, along with fellow government politician James Paterson, had planned to travel to China for a study tour next month but both have been banned from entering the country.

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Palestinian militant groups come to blows over Israel diplomacy

Tensions between Gaza’s two largest Palestinian militant groups have spilled into the open as Islamic Jihad supporters angrily accused Hamas of not coming to their aid in this week’s fighting with Israel.  Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group backed by Iran, fired more than 400 rockets into Israel this week in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of one of their senior leaders. But Hamas, the dominant force in Gaza, stayed out of the fighting.   Senior Hamas officials were accosted by Islamic Jihad supporters when they tried to visit a mourning tent for Baha Abu al-Ata, the assassinated Jihad commander. Some Jihad supporters threw stones at the Hamas leaders’ cars.  The clashes, which were broken up by Hamas policemen, were a rare public show of the fractures between the two groups.  An Israeli missile launched from the Iron Dome defence missile system, designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range rockets and artillery shells Credit: AFP Hamas did belatedly fire fire two rockets into Israel early on Saturday morning, the Israeli military said. Both rockets were shot down by Israel’s Iron Dome missile system and Israeli warplanes struck Hamas targets in response.  An Israeli official said it was not clear yet who gave the order for the rockets but it may have been a face-saving gesture as Hamas tried to fend off allegations that it had stood by and left Islamic Jihad to fight alone.  Islamic Jihad usually cooperates with Hamas but also sometimes tries to outflank the larger group and present itself as the true armed resistance to Israel by firing rockets.  That impetuousness has at times been a source of frustration for Hamas, which has been engaged in quiet indirect negotiations with Israel for more than year.  About | Hamas The two mortal enemies have held stop-start talks towards a deal in which Israel loosens its 12-year blockade of the Strip, in return for Hamas halting rocket fire and keeping the border quiet. But Israeli officials say those understandings have been interrupted several times recently by al-Ata’s rocket fire from Gaza, including an attack that sent thousands fleeing from a music festival this summer.  Israel’s military described al-Ata as an obstacle to “different diplomatic arrangements”, a coded way of referring to an understanding with Hamas.  Palestinian pupils hold a commemorative picture of their late classmate Moaz Abu Malhous at his school in Deir al-Balah town in central Gaza Strip, on November 16, 2019, two days after he was reportedly killed in an Israeli strike. Credit: AFP Which is why early on Tuesday morning Israel fired a missile into his home in the Shajaiyah neighbourhood of Gaza City, killing al-Ata and his wife.  In the fighting that followed Israel focused its fire on Islamic Jihad and tried to avoid striking Hamas. A total of 34 people, of whom 18 were militants, were killed in Gaza. Eight civilians, including five children were killed in one Israeli strike. Israeli said it was targeting an Islamic Jihad commander but acknowledged Friday it may have been a case of faulty intelligence.

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Hong Kong leader condemns London protester 'attack' on minister

Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam on Friday condemned a "barbaric attack" on her justice minister, who fell while being surrounded by a crowd of jeering pro-democracy protesters in London. It was the most physical confrontation involving a member of Lam's cabinet since the protests, now in their sixth month, erupted in the international finance hub. Teresa Cheng, Hong Kong's deeply unpopular Secretary for Justice, was ambushed by around a dozen masked demonstrators as she prepared to attend a speaking event on Thursday night in London.

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Off-duty officers were the first responders to the California high school shooting — because they were dropping off their own family members for school

The first responders reported to the scene at approximately 7:40 a.m., shortly after the first shots rang out, and began treating the gunshot victims.

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American IS suspect repatriated from Turkish-Greek border

An American citizen suspected of being an Islamic State group member was deported to the U.S. on Friday after spending five days in no man’s land between Turkey and Greece, the Turkish interior minister said. Two German IS suspects were also removed from Turkey on Friday, the minister added. Since the start of the week, Ankara has stepped up the return of suspected foreign IS members back to their countries of origin.

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DNC Announces 10 Candidates in Atlanta Democratic Debate

(Bloomberg) -- The Democratic National Committee on Thursday announced the 10 candidates who will participate in the fifth Democratic primary debate in Atlanta on Wednesday.They are: Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Yang.Julian Castro, who participated in previous debates, most recently in October at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, didn’t make the cut. Another October participant, Beto O’Rourke, has dropped out of the race. Deval Patrick, a former governor of Massachusetts who announced his candidacy on Thursday, also won’t be on the stage at the Tyler Perry Studios.The forum will be co-hosted by the Washington Post and MSNBC. Candidates will be questioned by four female moderators: Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell and Kristen Welker from the network, and Ashley Parker from the Post.The two-hour event had a higher bar to qualify than previous debates. Candidates must have contributions from 165,000 donors, up from 135,000.And the donors must be geographically dispersed, with a minimum of 600 per state in at least 20 states. In addition, participants must either show 3% support in four qualifying national or single-state polls, or have at least 5% support in two qualifying single-state polls released between Sept. 13 and Nov. 13 in the early nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or Nevada.The sixth debate will take place next month in Los Angeles.To contact the reporter on this story: Max Berley in Washington at mberley@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, John HarneyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Beshear to Kentucky teachers: Help is on the way

On election night, long before his win in the Kentucky governor’s race became official, Democrat Andy Beshear made clear who he thought helped make it happen. “To our educators, this is your victory,” Beshear proclaimed in a Nov. 5 victory speech as he maintained a slim 5,000-vote margin. Now that Republican Gov. Matt Bevin has conceded, Beshear is moving quickly to translate the political activism of teachers that began in 2018 and persisted through this year’s election into tangible school improvements.

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Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) on streets of Hong Kong for clean-up operation

China’s People’s Liberation Army troops appeared on the streets of Hong Kong yesterday as part of a clean-up mission that risked a backlash from pro-democracy protesters who have brought the city to a standstill in recent months. The appearance of the PLA soldiers outside their barracks - even dressed in shorts and t-shirts - to help clear away barricades and debris from another night of protests could be seen as an incremental raising of the political stakes from Beijing. Demosistō, a pro-democracy organisation, said the clean-up operation could set a "grave precedent" if the city's government invites the military to deal with internal problems. A member of Chinas People's Liberation Army (PLA) stands guard inside Osborn Barracks in Kowloon Tong in Hong Kong on November 16, 2019. - China's President Xi Jinping warned on November 14 that protests in Hong Kong threaten the "one country, two systems" principle governing the semi-autonomous city that has tipped into worsening violence with two dead in a week. Credit: AFP Hong Kong’s city government clarified that it did not request assistance from PLA forces which have remained in their barracks during five months of protests, issuing a statement describing the deployment as a “voluntary community activity” by the military. Foreign envoys and security analysts estimate up to 12,000 troops are now based across Hong Kong - more than double the usual garrison number following an additional deployment last August. Chinese troops have appeared on streets only once since the 1997 handover to help clear up after a typhoon in 2018.  It was not clear how many were involved yesterday, but by late afternoon, the PLA soldiers had left the streets outside Baptist University beside their barracks in Kowloon Tong. An anti-government protesters stands at a blocked outlet of the Cross Harbour Tunnel near the Polytechnic University in Hong Kong Credit: Reuters The PLA garrison in Hong Kong said that when some residents began cleaning, some troops "helped clear the road in front of the garrison gate". Clashes between protesters and police have become increasingly violent, with China warning that any attempt at independence for Hong Kong will be crushed. Chinese state media has repeatedly broadcast comments made on Thursday by President Xi Jinping, in which he denounced the unrest and said “stopping violence and controlling chaos while restoring order is currently Hong Kong's most urgent task”. Read More | Hong Kong crisis The clean-up followed some of the worst violence seen this year, after a police operation against protesters at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on Tuesday. The authorities have since largely stayed away from at least five university campuses that had been barricaded by thousands of students and activists who stockpiled petrol bombs, catapults, bows and arrows and other weapons.

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Congressman Raskin condemns "moral degeneration" of Republicans

The Maryland Democrat compared the withholding of aid to Ukraine to an attempted bank robbery

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Cuba cries foul as doctors head home from Bolivia

The first of around 700 Cuban doctors were scheduled to fly home from strife-torn Bolivia on Saturday as officials railed against what they charged was slander and mistreatment by Bolivia's conservative interim government. Cuba said Saturday that 10 doctors, including the coordinator of its medical mission, were detained this week and four remained in custody. On Friday, the foreign ministry said it was terminating its medical mission as officials were fostering violence against the doctors by claiming they were instigating rebellion.

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Chicago teachers approve 'historic' contract that ended 11-day strike

The Chicago Teachers Union voted Friday to accept a contract deal that ended an 11-day strike in the third-largest school district last month.

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A federal judge ruled that New Jersey-born, ISIS-bride Hoda Muthana is not a US citizen

Hoda Muthana's father was a Yemeni diplomat at the time of her birth, which raised the question of whether or not she gained US citizenship at birth.

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Iran's protests against gasoline price hike turn political: media

Riot police and security forces clashed with demonstrators in Tehran and dozens of cities across Iran on Saturday, Iranian news agencies and social media said, as protests against a rise in gasoline prices turned political. The reports said demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans around the country, a day after the government increased the price of regular gasoline to 15,000 rials ($0.13) a liter from 10,000 rials and rationed it. Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli told state TV that security forces "have so far shown restraint" but will act to restore calm if the demonstrators "damaged public properties".

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5 family members, including 3 children, dead in murder-suicide in San Diego, police say

Five family members have died and a boy was injured after a man shot his family and then turned the gun on himself in San Diego, police say.

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GOP woman gets outsized role at impeachment hearing

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Australia intel chair blocked from China after criticising Beijing

Australia's parliamentary intelligence committee head, who has previously criticised Beijing, said he had been blocked from entering China due to his "frankness about the Chinese Communist Party". Andrew Hastie warned several months ago that the world's approach to containing China's rise resembles the "catastrophic failure" to prevent the advance of Nazi Germany. Hastie, along with fellow government politician James Paterson, had planned to travel to China for a study tour next month but both have been banned from entering the country.

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Bushfires conditions worsen in east and west Australia

Rising temperatures, lightning strikes and gusty winds further raised fire danger on both coasts of Australia on Sunday as the country already battles more than 120 bushfires and firefighters work day and night trying to contain them.

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U.S. imposes travel ban on Cuba's interior minister over rights violations in Venezuela

The U.S. State Department on Saturday said it was imposing a travel ban on Cuban Interior Minister Julio Cesar Gandarilla Bermejo and his children, citing the minister's involvement in what it called "gross violations of human rights in Venezuela."

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