USA

16 December 2019; AFP: Donald Trump's relations with his own intelligence services have never been so fraught: the US president doesn't listen to his spy chiefs, doesn't seem to rank his sources and makes snap decisions without giving them any warning.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump is likely this week to become the third U.S. president to be impeached when the Democratic-led House of Representatives votes on charges stemming from his effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden.

Trump faces one charge of abusing his power by asking Ukraine to investigate Biden, a leading Democratic contender to oppose him in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and one of obstructing Congress’ investigation into the matter.

The president has denied wrongdoing.

(Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s campaign has embraced Democratic-led efforts to impeach him as a major asset to his 2020 re-election campaign, betting that his supporters and disaffected political independents will be motivated to vote for him next November.

But if the Republican president is hoping for a public backlash like the one against the 1998 impeachment of Democratic President Bill Clinton, it has so far not worked out that way, Reuters/Ipsos polling data over the past few months shows.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- A top Mexican trade negotiator flew to Washington on Sunday for urgent talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to express Mexico's opposition to a labor enforcement provision in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), U.S. media reported.

Jesus Seade, undersecretary for North America of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accused the United States of blindsiding Mexico by deciding to send up to five U.S. attaches to monitor labor conditions as part of the revised USMCA, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.

SEATTLE (AP) — Boeing may cut production of the grounded 737 Max jet or temporarily stop making it after being told that its timetable for a return to the skies was not realistic, according to a published report Sunday.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing’s board would consider the moves at a meeting that began Sunday and would run into Monday. The newspaper, citing people it did not identify, said management is increasingly seeing production cuts as a viable option.

USA (AP) --- The U.S. Military Academy and Naval Academy have appointed officers to conduct separate internal investigations into possible “white power” hand gestures flashed by a few students during a broadcast at the Army-Navy football game, academy public affairs officers said Sunday.

“Based on findings of the investigation, those involved will be held appropriately accountable,” Cmdr. Alana Garas, a spokeswoman for the academy in Annapolis, Maryland, said via email. “It would be inappropriate to speculate any further while we are conducting this investigation.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Five aides to a House Democrat who plans to become a Republican are resigning, saying his party switch “does not align with the values we brought to this job when we joined his office.”

The staffers wrote the letter on Sunday, a day after a Republican official said GOP House leaders had been informed that New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew was planning the switch. Van Drew, a freshman, has said he will vote “no” this week when the House decides whether to impeach President Donald Trump, a decision that puts him at odds with nearly every other Democrat.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A judge is being asked Monday to set bond for a Mississippi man who has been tried six times in the same quadruple murder case.

Curtis Flowers, 49, is scheduled to appear in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Winona. That is the town where four employees of the Tardy Furniture store were shot to death in 1996.

Four of Flowers’ convictions in the case have been overturned, and two ended in mistrials.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are proposing a weekslong Senate impeachment trial seeking testimony from four new witnesses including John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney over President Donald Trump’s actions toward Ukraine, according to a detailed outline released Sunday.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York proposed the structure for a “fair and honest’’ trial in a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, an attempt to launch negotiations ahead of House voting this week that is all but certain to result in the president being impeached.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In recent days, Iran hawks in Congress leveraged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s interest in a Senate run to win a key concession from the Trump administration that could help their bid to kill the nuclear deal with Tehran.