USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three years of simmering frustration inside the State Department is boiling over on Capitol Hill as a parade of current and former diplomats testify to their concerns about the Trump administration’s unorthodox policy toward Ukraine.

Over White House objections, the diplomats are appearing before impeachment investigators looking into President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine and they’re recounting stories of possible impropriety, misconduct and mistreatment by their superiors.

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) — Witnesses have gathered in a small city in upstate New York over the past three weeks to testify in the trial of a man accused of strangling a young nursing student. But there is no jury, no American judge and the man accused is seated next to his defense attorney 2,200 miles (3,540 kilometers) away — in Nicaragua.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Thundering explosions toppled two cranes Sunday that had loomed precariously for days over a partially collapsed hotel in New Orleans, in what city officials hailed as a success and said efforts now would focus on retrieving two bodies still inside the ruined building.

The fiery afternoon explosions sent up massive clouds of dust and sent one crane crashing to the street while the second fell in a way that left much of it resting atop the hotel where officials said it was “stable” and could be removed piecemeal.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — At least 12 white supremacists have been arrested on allegations of plotting, threatening or carrying out anti-Semitic attacks in the U.S. since the massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue nearly one year ago, a Jewish civil rights group reported Sunday.

The Anti-Defamation League also counted at least 50 incidents in which white supremacists are accused of targeting Jewish institutions’ property since a gunman killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018.

MIDWAY ATOLL, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (AP) — A crew of deep-sea explorers and historians looking for lost World War II warships have found a second Japanese aircraft carrier that went down in the historic Battle of Midway.

Vulcan Inc.’s director of undersea operations Rob Kraft and Naval History and Heritage Command historian Frank Thompson reviewed high frequency sonar images of the warship Sunday and say that it’s dimensions and location mean it has to be the carrier Akagi.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For Mick Mulvaney, the hits just keep on coming.

First, President Donald Trump’s acting chief of staff stirred up a tempest by acknowledging that the administration had held up aid to Ukraine in part to prod that country to investigate Democrats and the 2016 elections. Then Mulvaney went on television Sunday to defend his boss in effusive terms — and ended up making a new problematic comment.

WASHINGTON, October 20. /TASS/: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is beginning the 16th General Review of Quotas, which is to be completed no later than in December 2023, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak told reporters on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank meeting.

"The keystone of the next addition will be another attempt to agree on a new formula for country quota, a formula that would reflect the country’s clout in the global economy," he said.

WASHINGTON, October 19. /TASS/: The Russian government will soon begin preparing a "more ambitious" privatization plan, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov said on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

"Indeed, we have relaxed a bit because we don’t need money, and the ministries all have on their even small shares in companies and want to manage them," Siluanov said.

20 October 2019; AFP: On September 12, Boeing started putting out 30-second videos in which employees tout its planes' safety, hoping to reassure travelers about the 737 MAX that's been grounded worldwide since two crashes that killed 346 people.

"Safety is at the core of our business. We have put hundreds of engineers to work to ensure that this airplane is 100 percent ready," says Jennifer Henderson, chief test pilot for the 737, in one of the clips.

Washington, Oct 20 (AFP/PTI) US President Donald Trump has said the next G7 summit will not be at one of his own Florida golf clubs, reversing a decision that had sparked corruption accusations.

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney had announced the venue for the summit on Thursday, causing a firestorm among Trump's Democratic opponents in Congress, who called the move "among the most brazen examples yet of the president's corruption."