USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top U.S. diplomat testified Tuesday that President Donald Trump was holding back military aid for Ukraine unless the country agreed to investigate Democrats and a company linked to Joe Biden’s family, providing lawmakers with a detailed new account of the quid pro quo central to the impeachment probe.

22 October 2019; AFP: US President Donald Trump on Monday said progress in developing the text of a partial trade pact with China means he will likely be able to sign it next month.

Trump remains upbeat on the chances Beijing and Washington will seal the mini-deal he announced earlier this month -- marking a cooling-off period in the two nations' damaging trade war.

"We'll be able to, we think, sign a completed document with China on phase one," Trump said at the White House.

22 Oct 2019; MEMO: Facebook said it had removed four networks from its social networking platforms that were run by Iranian and Russian groups seeking to influence elections in the run-up to the US 2020 presidential vote, as reported by Anadolu Agency. 

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- The 70th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), a five-day conference devoted to discussing innovation and advances in the space industry, began in Washington D.C. on Monday.

The congress, which runs until Friday, has drawn more than 6,000 industry delegates from around the world to discuss the space industry growth, solar and deep space exploration, liquid water search on Mars, defense against asteroids and space transportation management.

USA (AP) -- Some Democrats are putting up caution signs for Hillary Clinton as she wades back into presidential politics by casting 2020 candidate Tulsi Gabbard as a “Russian asset,” mocking President Donald Trump’s dealings with a foreign leader and drawing counterattacks from both.

Bernie Sanders, who lost the 2016 nomination to Clinton and is running again in 2020, took to Twitter with implicit criticisms of his erstwhile rival. “People can disagree on issues,” Sanders wrote Monday, “but it is outrageous for anyone to suggest that Tulsi is a foreign asset.”

DALLAS (AP) — A tornado tossed trees into homes, tore off storefronts and downed power lines but killed no one in a densely populated area of Dallas, leaving Mayor Eric Johnson to declare the city “very fortunate” to be assessing only property damage.

A meteorologist said Monday that people took shelter thanks to early alerts, and that it was fortunate the tornado struck Sunday evening, when many people were home.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The suspect in a torture killing in Alaska’s biggest city ended up leading police right to him, first by losing a digital memory card labeled “Homicide at midtown Marriott” that contained video of the dying woman.

Then came an even more innocuous blunder: He spoke on the tape in his distinctive, very un-Alaska accent.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Behind closed doors, President Donald Trump has made his views on Ukraine clear: “They tried to take me down.”

The president, according to people familiar with testimony in the House impeachment investigation, sees the Eastern European ally, not Russia, as responsible for the interference in the 2016 election that was investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out Monday at critics who prompted him to move next year’s Group of Seven summit from his golf club in Florida, saying “Democrats went crazy” with criticisms that he would have violated the “phony emoluments clause” of the Constitution.

“I was willing to do this for free,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Monday, comparing it to his decision not to take his $400,000 presidential salary. But now, he said, “It will cost a fortune for the country.”

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The shout of “2024!” from the crowd was unmistakable. It stopped Donald Trump Jr. cold.

President Donald Trump’s eldest son had been in the midst of a humor-laced screed in which he decried Joe Biden as too old and Elizabeth Warren as too liberal and insisted his father’s 2016 campaign was too disorganized to possibly collude with the Russians. As many in the crowd of several hundred laughed, Trump Jr. held a dramatic pause before exclaiming his response:

“Let’s worry about 2020 first!” he yelled.