Supreme Court re-enters debate on money in politics by vacating decision on Alaska contribution limits

The Supreme Court re-entered the national debate over the influence of money in politics by vacating a lower court's decision in an Alaska case.

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Chinese state media urge Hong Kongers to 'vote to end violence'

Chinese state media urged Hong Kongers to "vote to end violence" Sunday, as record numbers turned out for district elections after months of unrest in the city. Lengthy queues snaked out of polling stations across the semi-autonomus territory in the election for 18 district councils -- largely toothless bodies which set policy on issues such as bus routes and garbage collection. State media on the mainland urged voters to give support to pro-establishment forces to "end social chaos", but the big turnout is widely expected to benefit democratic forces.

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Vintage illustrations as Thanksgiving greetings

Here’s a look at some vintage Thanksgiving postcards, greeting cards and illustrations from the turn of the century to 1923. They don’t make them like that any more!

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SPECIAL REPORT-‘Time to take out our swords': Inside Iran’s plot to attack Saudi Arabia

Four months before a swarm of drones and missiles crippled the world’s biggest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia, Iranian security officials gathered at a heavily fortified compound in Tehran. The group included the top echelons of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite branch of the Iranian military whose portfolio includes missile development and covert operations. The main topic that day in May: How to punish the United States for pulling out of a landmark nuclear treaty and re-imposing economic sanctions on Iran, moves that have hit the Islamic Republic hard.

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Two priests in Argentina sentenced to more than 40 years in sex abuse case

An Argentine court on Monday convicted two Roman Catholic priests and the former gardener of a church-run school for deaf students in the province of Mendoza on 28 counts of sexual abuse and corruption of minors. Priests Nicola Corradi and Horacio Corbacho were sentenced to 42 and 45 years in prison, respectively, while the school employee, Armando Gomez, got 18 years. The sentencings by Judges Carlos Diaz, Mauricio Juan and Anibal Crivelli of the Collegiate Criminal Court No. 2 were live streamed in Argentina.

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What’s next in impeachment: Judiciary Committee up next

After two weeks of public hearings, Democrats could soon turn the impeachment process over to the House Judiciary Committee. In the coming weeks, the House intelligence panel will submit a report to the Judiciary panel, and then Democrats will consider drafting articles of impeachment on President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine and the administration’s attempts to block the investigation. There could be several steps along the way, including a Judiciary committee vote, a House floor vote and, finally, a Senate trial.

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U.S. Supreme Court turns away murder case highlighted in 'Serial' podcast

The justices turned away an appeal by Adnan Syed, 39, who has been serving a life sentence since 2000 after being convicted in the strangling death of high school classmate Hae Min Lee. Maryland's highest court in March ruled out a new trial for Syed despite his attorney's failure to properly defend him. Prosecutors said Syed killed the 17-year-old Lee in 1999 in the parking lot of a Best Buy store shortly after school, and then buried her body in a shallow grave later that evening.

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Stephen Miller: the white nationalist at the heart of Trump's White House

The revelation of an email trove in which the senior aide trafficked in far-right ideas provoked outrage but little surpriseStephen Miller is one of the few survivors from Donald Trump’s original White House team. Photograph: Evan Vucci/APThe extraordinary email leak came with a sense of inevitability. The senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller promoted white nationalist articles and books in emails to a writer at Breitbart, who after leaving the hard-right website leaked 900 messages to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).It was a discovery that would end the careers of most political figures. But among calls for Miller’s resignation, a common theme emerged: a lack of surprise that the architect of Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda endorsed white supremacist views.“Stephen Miller has stoked bigotry, hate and division with his extreme political rhetoric and policies throughout his career,” a coalition of 55 civil rights groups wrote to the president this week. “The recent exposure of his deep-seated racism provides further proof that he is unfit to serve and should immediately leave his post.”A columnist at the conservative newspaper the Washington Examiner, Tiana Lowe, wrote that while the public doesn’t know for a fact how Miller feels inside, he has historically shown an unwillingness to bend his hardline stance on immigration, thereby threatening more mainstream Republican policies.“It’s long past time for Trump to dump Miller,” Lowe wrote.In a turbulent White House, the 34-year-old has been the driving force behind controversial policies such as family separation, the travel ban on Muslim-majority countries and a rule that would penalize legal immigrants for using public benefits.Courts have ended, amended or put the policies on hold but they are standout examples in a portfolio of changes to legal and humanitarian immigration frameworks happening at such a rapid pace it is difficult for most Americans to comprehend.What the American public does understand is Miller’s laser focus on blocking immigration to the US.Before the emails were released, Miller was called a fascist at a Mexican restaurant in Washington DC. He also reportedly threw away $80 of takeout sushi, after a bartender followed him into the street.Miller’s uncle, who has admitted he has not had many conversations with his nephew in the past 10 years, wrote an opinion piece charging that Miller was an “immigration hypocrite”, because his ancestors included Jews who came to the US to escape pogroms in Russia.In an interview with the Washington Post published in August, Miller dismissed charges of racism.“It is a scurrilous and scandalous lie,” he said, “born of a complete and total lack of understanding of the harms done by uncontrolled migration to people of all backgrounds, and born of a contempt for this nation, for our law enforcement officers and for the citizens who live here – and oftentimes, I might add, born of a personal grudge against this administration.”He told the Post he had no plans or ambitions beyond his job, because of his focus on the president.“You cannot understand me, you cannot understand anything that I say, do or think if you do not understand that my sole motivation is to serve this president and this country, and there is no other,” Miller said.Such religious attachment to Trump might have seemed unlikely for a Californian from a predominantly liberal, beachside community like Santa Monica. But Miller started early as a conservative provocateur.“Am I the only one who is sick and tired of being told to pick up my trash when we have plenty of janitors who are paid to do it for us?” he asked while running for class president in high school.Before graduating, he had appeared on a nationally syndicated conservative radio talkshow more than 70 times.In the Trump administration, as one of few surviving initial appointees, he has deployed a similarly inflammatory style.In response to questions about Trump’s authority to implement the travel ban, Miller said the president “will not be questioned”.His response to the four Democratic congresswoman known as the Squad? “They want to tear down the structure of our country.”How to explain the zero-tolerance policy which allowed for mass family separations at the border? “A simple decision.”The email leak, however, showed a new depth to Miller’s anti-immigration agenda. In reports published in the past two weeks, the SPLC showed that Miller disseminated conspiracy theories positing a United Nations-inspired plan to colonize America and recommend a book which claims refugee resettlement – a program Miller has helped nearly destroy – is part of a plan to erase American sovereignty and culture.There has been a steady drumbeat of calls for Miller to go. This week, Hillary Clinton tweeted: “Every day Stephen Miller remains in the White House is an emergency.”On Thursday night, more than 100 Democrats in Congress signed a letter to Trump demanding Miller’s removal.“A documented white nationalist has no place in any presidential administration, and especially not in such an influential position,” the letter said.The White House has supported Miller. But it has not denied the emails came from him; nor has it addressed the emails’ content.Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, said the SPLC was an “utterly discredited, long-debunked far-left smear organization”. Hogan Gidley, her deputy, claimed the criticism was related to Miller’s Jewish identity.“He loves this country and hates bigotry in all forms – and it concerns me as to why so many on the left consistently attack Jewish members of this administration,” Gidley told the New York Times.On Friday morning, a coalition of Jewish groups called on Trump to fire Miller, in order “to make clear that white supremacy has no place in the White House or the United States of America”.

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This California town has the slowest internet in the U.S.

Less than 100 miles from the country's tech hub in San Francisco, rural residents lag far behind on internet access.

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'Poison' of anti-Semitism has taken root in UK's Labour: Chief Rabbi

The poison of anti-Semitism "sanctioned from the top" has taken root in Britain's opposition Labour Party, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said in an article published on Monday, warning the "soul of our nation is at stake" in next month's election.

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These Cocktail Cherries Have More Holiday Cheer

By BY FLORENCE FABRICANT from NYT Food https://ift.tt/2OG6lA2

Trump and the Military Do Not Share the Same Values

By BY RICHARD J. DANZIG AND SEAN O’KEEFE from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2sion3R

Fed Chair Powell to Say a Solid Labor Market Could Get Even Stronger

By BY JEANNA SMIALEK from NYT Business https://ift.tt/2XNle7C

Trump Gives U.S. Business the Ukraine Treatment

By BY PAUL KRUGMAN from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/2XM7cmK

Impeachment, Tiffany, Russian Doping: Your Monday Evening Briefing

By BY VICTORIA SHANNON from NYT Briefing https://ift.tt/2XLx2HH

Chinese woman convicted of trespassing at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort faces up to 6 years in prison

A Chinese woman convicted of trespassing at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in March is expected to receive a prison sentence on Monday.

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CORRECTED-SPECIAL REPORT-‘Time to take out our swords': Inside Iran’s plot to attack Saudi Arabia

Four months before a swarm of drones and missiles crippled the world’s biggest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia, Iranian security officials gathered at a heavily fortified compound in Tehran. The main topic that day in May: How to punish the United States for pulling out of a landmark nuclear treaty and re-imposing economic sanctions on Iran, moves that have hit the Islamic Republic hard. With Major General Hossein Salami, leader of the Revolutionary Guards, looking on, a senior commander took the floor.

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Trump news: President calls disgraced commando a 'great fighter' and says he doesn't know what 'insurance' Giuliani has against him

Republicans are “setting a dangerous precedent that threatens the republic itself” in supporting Donald Trump against efforts to impeach him, the former director of the US Office of Government Ethics has warned.Walter Shaub claims all future presidents will “be able to point to Trump to justify soliciting foreign attacks on elections” and a raft of other accusations levelled at the current commander-in-chief.

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Former Iowa governor says Biden has ‘heart of a president’

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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Thanksgiving Travel Could Be Disrupted by Rain and Snow Across the U.S. Here’s What to Know

Here's what you need to know about the most disruptive storms coming this holiday week

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Vintage illustrations as Thanksgiving greetings

Here’s a look at some vintage Thanksgiving postcards, greeting cards and illustrations from the turn of the century to 1923. They don’t make them like that any more!

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This Is Why The Fed Must Keep Cutting Interest Rates

Or else America could be in for a world of pain.

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Legal experts say U.S. court ruling on White House counsel could encourage witnesses to talk in impeachment probe

U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in Washington said she would rule by Monday in a lawsuit by a U.S. House of Representatives committee seeking to compel former White House Counsel Don McGahn to testify in the probe. Brown Jackson, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, suggested during oral arguments in October that she would rule in favor of the House.

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