On Politics A.M.: Democrats Disclose Impeachment Proceeding Rules

2019年10月30日星期三

October 30, 2019

Good Wednesday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today.

House Democrats unveiled new rules on Tuesday that will allow President Trump and his lawyers to cross-examine witnesses and formally present their defense once the Judiciary Committee begins debate over whether to impeach him for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, tried, and failed, to make corrections to the official account of the now-infamous July call between Mr. Trump and Ukraine's president, that he and other officials found alarming.
Colonel Vindman fled Ukraine at age 3 and became a soldier, scholar and official at the White House. On Tuesday, his past and present converged when he became the first sitting White House official to testify in the impeachment inquiry.
Dealing a bipartisan rebuke to Mr. Trump's decision to pull back American forces from northern Syria, the House voted overwhelmingly to impose a series of sweeping sanctions on Turkey over its brutal assault on the Kurds.

World leaders and business executives converged upon the palatial Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh on Tuesday, putting concerns about Saudi Arabia's role in the 2018 murder of a dissident journalist behind them and returning unabashedly to deal-making.

When the Democratic primary contest began last winter, it featured the most racially diverse field in history. But 10 months later, the Democratic field has a top tier of four white candidates — three of them men — frustrating Democrats seeking a more diverse party leadership.

There are three governor's races at stake in this off-year election next Tuesday, but it's the governor's race in Kentucky where the political impact of impeachment on the two parties is being put to the most visible test.

Jeff Sessions, the former attorney general, is considering a run for his old Alabama Senate seat, which he previously held for 20 years. In a deeply red state, he would seem to be a formidable challenger to the Democratic incumbent, Doug Jones, but Mr. Trump's antipathy toward him could complicate his becoming the Republican nominee.

Over the last year, the United States has detained more children trying to cross the nation's southwest border on their own than during any other period on record, surpassing the surge of unaccompanied minors that set off a crisis during the Obama administration.

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a near-total ban on abortions from taking effect next month in Alabama, ensuring the procedure remains legal and available in the state while the case winds its way through the courts.
California's spate of catastrophic wildfires has not discriminated between rich and poor. Tens of thousands of people have lost their homes, from trailer parks to mansions. But the aftermath of the fires has produced a spectrum of misery and recovery, starkly falling on class lines.

Today's On Politics briefing was compiled by Isabella Grullón Paz in New York.

Is there anything you think we're missing? Anything you want to see more of? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.