Light News

here’s a Republican senator disseminating Russian intelligence propaganda fabricated to harm the United States he’s doing it because it helps him politically
https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/1198702430315319297

Hong Kong's pro-democracy candidates won a stunning victory in local elections that drew a record turnout, in a sharp rebuke of Chinese policies
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/24/world/asia/hong-kong-election-results.html

A confidential White House review of Trump’s decision to place a hold on military aid to Ukraine has turned up hundreds of documents that reveal extensive efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification for the decision and a debate over whether the delay was legal, according to three people familiar with the records. The research by the White House Counsel’s Office, which was triggered by a congressional impeachment inquiry announced in September, includes early August email exchanges between acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House budget officials seeking to provide an explanation for withholding the funds after Trump had already ordered a hold in mid-July on the nearly $400 million in security assistance, according to the three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations. One person briefed on the records examination said White House lawyers are expressing concern that the review has turned up some unflattering exchanges and facts that could at a minimum embarrass the president. It’s unclear if the Mulvaney discussions or other records pose any legal problems for Trump in the impeachment inquiry, but some fear they could pose political problems if revealed publicly.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-review-turns-up-emails-showing-extensive-effort-to-justify-trumps-decision-to-block-ukraine-military-aid/2019/11/24/2121cf98-0d57-11ea-bd9d-c628fd48b3a0_story.html

House Intelligence Committee in possession of audio, video, photos that include Giuliani and Trump
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/house-intelligence-committee-possession-video-audio-recordings-giuliani/story?id=67276448

82 Days Underwater: The Tide Is High, but They’re Holding On | A brutal “king tides” season made worse by climate change has flooded the streets of a Florida Keys community for nearly three months. | This year, Hurricane Dorian and other tropical storms in late August and September likely interrupted the Gulf Stream, which moves water away from southern Florida. Instead, the water backed up, said Chris Rothwell, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in Key West. Tides from the Carolinas to Florida, and from the Florida Keys to Tampa, have been six to 18 inches higher than expected. “This is a high anomaly,” said Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. “But as time goes on, what we think of as high anomalies will gradually become more normal. There’ll be a time at some point where what used to be our high tide becomes the mean sea level.” | Longtime Florida Keys residents and officials say they have never seen tidal flooding this bad outside of a hurricane — and certainly not when they bought their properties 20 or 30 years ago. The most flooding that Stillwright Point regulars remember was for 22 days in 2015. When this year’s flooding reached biblical proportions — 40 days and 40 nights — the dramatic news made the front page of The Miami Herald. That was more than a month ago. The water, which neighbors say reached 18 inches in some places, briefly started to recede; then, overnight during the last full moon, it swelled again, surprising residents who had thought the worst was behind them. | Elevating a third of the county’s 300 miles of roads could cost $1 billion, Ms. Haag said. “We are the most vulnerable county in the state, if not the nation.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/24/us/florida-keys-flooding-king-tide.html
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/florida-keys/article236261848.html

“Bondy also said a top aide to Nunes sometimes joined a group that met frequently in spring 2019 at the Trump Hotel to discuss the Biden matter. Convened by Giuliani, the group included Parnas, Fruman, John Solomon, Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-house-democrat-says-ethics-probe-of-nunes-is-likely-over-alleged-meeting-with-ukrainian-about-bidens/2019/11/23/0dde6b22-0e0a-11ea-97ac-a7ccc8dd1ebc_story.html

Devin Nunes Spent $57,000 on Flights to Europe to Allegedly Investigate Bidens as Ethics Complaint Filed Over 'Abuse' of Office | Parnas said he met Nunes in a secretive trip to Vienna, Austria, between November and December 2018, and put him in touch with former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin—the lawyer who was ousted from his position in 2016 after pressure from Western leaders, including Biden, who said he was not doing enough to combat corruption. Reports filed with the Office of the Clerk for the House of Representatives show that Nunes claimed expenses for a four-day trip to Europe at the time in question between November 30 and December 3. Four entries for "commercial airfare" were claimed for Scott Glabe, George Pappas, Derek Harvey and Nunes himself. Each claimed $14,201.43 for their visit—which included daily allowances—and came to a total of $56,805.72.
https://www.newsweek.com/devin-nunes-spent-57000-flights-europe-allegedly-investigate-bidens-1473765
http://clerk.house.gov/foreign/reports/2019q1mar04.pdf

“People get tortured until they are almost dead or useless.”
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjwmpb/prevent-escapes-leaked-documents-detail-brutal-reality-of-chinas-re-education-camps-for-muslims