USA

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy joined Jersey City’s mayor Tuesday in calling for a school board member to quit over comments she made about the shooting at a kosher market, referring to Jews as “brutes” and questioning whether the shooters had a point to make in attacking Jews.

Murphy, a Democrat, tweeted hours after Jersey City Democratic Mayor Steven Fulop said that Board of Education member Joan Terrell Paige’s comments on the social media platform from the weekend “has no place in our schools.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — One is spending millions of dollars flooding the airwaves from Los Angeles to Sacramento, highlighting his tenure as mayor of the nation’s largest city and commitment to key Democratic causes. The other has hired 80 staff members to knock on doors, organize volunteers and promote his message of political revolution in at least seven languages.

WASHINGTON (AP) — American history is happening on the House floor.

Democrats are driving President Donald Trump to the brink of impeachment Wednesday when they bring abuse and obstruction charges against him to a full House vote. That could take place early Wednesday evening, making the 45th president only the third commander in chief to face that penalty.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A party-switching congressman drew praise Tuesday from President Donald Trump and condemnation from Democrats, underscoring how his political fate could hinge on how forcefully he is backed by the president whose impeachment he is refusing to support.

A day before the House was set to cast party-line votes impeaching Trump, New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew stopped short of confirming he will become a Republican but acknowledged he’s considering it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump stands on the threshold of what two ex-presidents called the “profound disgrace” of impeachment, a permanent stain on his legacy.

Of what Alexander Hamilton set out in the Federalist Papers as the apt remedy for “the misconduct of public men.”

Or what Trump mockingly dismisses as impeachment lite.

The leader who has sliced a scythe through institutions and thrives in disruption stands unrepentant as a splintered nation prepares to impeach a president for only the third time in history.

Yet the weight of history is at hand.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved two Pacific Gas & Electric settlements totaling $24.5 billion to help pay the losses suffered by homeowners, businesses and insurers in the aftermath of catastrophic Northern California wildfires that sent the nation’s largest utility into a financial morass.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chief judge of a secretive surveillance court said Tuesday that the FBI provided “unsupported” information when it applied to eavesdrop on a former Trump campaign adviser and directed the bureau to report back by next month on what steps it was taking to fix the problems.

The four-page order from Judge Rosemary Collyer followed a harshly critical Justice Department inspector general report that said the FBI had withheld key information when it submitted four applications in 2016 and 2017 to monitor the communications of Carter Page.

WASHINGTON (AP) — On the eve of almost-certain impeachment, President Donald Trump fired off a furious letter Tuesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denouncing the “vicious crusade” against him, while Democrats amassed the votes they needed and Republicans looked ahead, vowing to defend Trump at next month’s Senate trial.

WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved the release of about $368m to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It’s the IMF’s first resumption of lending to the country since 2012.

The IMF had previously suspended a loan programme as the government failed to provide sufficient details about the sale of state mining assets.

President Félix Tshisekedi has sought to mend frayed relations with foreign donors since taking office in January.

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 17 (APP): An average of nine children have been killed or maimed every day in Afghanistan so far this year, according to a new report from the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, which describes the country as “the world’s most lethal warzone”.

The report, entitled “Preserving Hope in Afghanistan: Protecting children in the world’s most lethal conflict”, accuses the parties to the fighting, which has dragged on for some 40 years, of failing in their duty to shield children from its consequences.