Exclusive: Trump lawyer Giuliani was paid $500,000 to consult on indicted associate's firm  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was paid $500,000 for work he did for a company co-founded by the Ukrainian-American businessman arrested last week …

Trump's impeachment barricade crumbles  —  Donald Trump's impeachment blockade has collapsed.  —  The president's former top Russia adviser, Fiona Hill — the first White House official to cooperate in Democrats' investigation of the Ukraine scandal — has detailed for lawmakers a trail …

U.S. troops abandoned their Syrian base.  Video appears to show Russians have moved in.  —  As Moscow announced Tuesday that its units were patrolling in northern Syria, a journalist traveling with Russian-backed forces released a video that appeared to show the inside of a now-abandoned U.S. base near the town of Manbij.

British holidaymakers ‘traumatised’ after arrest at US border  —  A British couple say they have been detained in the US after accidentally crossing the border from Canada.  —  David Connors, 30, and his wife Eileen, 24, say they are being held in Pennsylvania with their three-month-old baby and are “traumatised”.

Shari Redstone Explores Plan to Launch Fox News Competitor (Exclusive)  —  The mogul, who has spoken with former Fox News star Megyn Kelly, may look to rebrand an existing Viacom linear channel to create a conservative-leaning news network.  —  In the midst of closing a merger between CBS and Viacom …

Trump's ‘China Muse’ Has an Imaginary Friend  —  Who is Ron Vara?  He only seems to exist in the books of Peter Navarro.  —  Ron Vara has strong opinions.  He thinks you've “got to be nuts to eat Chinese food.”  He doles out little scraps of wisdom, like “Don't play checkers in a chess world.”

Lara Trump Defends Trump on Syria By Claiming ‘The Average American’ Doesn't Even Know Who the Kurds Are  —  First Daughter-in-Law and senior Trump campaign adviser Lara Trump added another offensive defense of President Donald Trump's decision to abandon the United States' Kurdish allies …

LeBron James undermines values he's espoused in most disgraceful moment of career  —  On behalf of the 327 million American citizens who generally believe that freedom is good and authoritarian regimes are less good, let me apologize to LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Why Are Democrats Jilting G.O.P. Voters Who Want to Like Them?  —  Candidates are leaving potential Republican converts without options.  —  Ms. Andersen is a freelance writer in Indianapolis.  —  Under President Trump, a small slice of America's electorate seeks a reason to call the Democratic Party home for the very first time.

How Lev Parnas Became Part of the Trump Campaign's “One Big Family”  —  On September 26th, two weeks before Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were arrested at Dulles International Airport, Parnas was visiting Manhattan.  It was during the U.N. General Assembly, and a large Ukrainian delegation was in town.

Exclusive: ‘Hiding in plain sight’: Hunter Biden defends foreign ventures but concedes political ‘mistake’  —  As President Donald Trump continues to fill his Twitter feed and campaign speeches with attacks on Hunter Biden over his foreign business deals, the former vice president's son defended …

Trump is on his way to an easy win in 2020, according to Moody's accurate election model  — President Donald Trump will win re-election easily in 2020 if the economy holds up, modeling by Moody's Analytics shows.  — “If voters were to vote primarily on the basis of their pocketbooks …

Makes More Sense |  Pete Buttigieg for President … To stay connected with the campaign:  —  About Pete:  —  Pete Buttigieg is a husband, Afghanistan veteran, and the Mayor of his hometown, South Bend, Indiana.  —  Pete is running for president because this is a now or never moment for our nation.

Impeachment Could End Collins' Career  —  PPP's newest Maine poll finds that Susan Collins is in trouble for reelection...and that she's likely to find herself in more trouble no matter what side of impeachment she comes down on.  —  Collins is unpopular, with only 35% of voters approving of the job she's doing to 50% who disapprove.

Democratic leaders gauge support for impeachment inquiry vote  —  House Democratic leaders are quietly reaching out to the most vulnerable members of their caucus to gauge whether they would support a formal vote to authorize an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, according to multiple Democratic aides.

We Found a “Staggering” 281 Lobbyists Who've Worked in the Trump Administration  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up for ProPublica's Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published.

The hidden menace threatening Democrats' bid to beat Trump in 2020  —  The Democratic National Committee sent an urgent alert on Monday to every presidential campaign aimed at avoiding a repeat of the cybersecurity fiasco the party suffered at the hands of Russia and WikiLeaks in 2016.

Rep. Peter DeFazio calls for audit into Elaine Chao's alleged Kentucky favors  —  A senior House Democrat has asked the Transportation Department's internal watchdog to investigate whether Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao showed undue favoritism to Kentucky constituents of her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

White House officials to meet with parents of teen killed by U.S. diplomat's wife  —  The meeting comes as Harry Dunn's parents have pleaded for the diplomat's wife to be held accountable for her actions.  —  WASHINGTON — The White House invited the parents of the British teenager …

Warren blasts fellow 2020 candidates for ‘hobnobbing with the rich and powerful,’ swears off big-dollar donors  —  Hours before Tuesday night's Democratic presidential debate and just days after she swore off big fundraisers, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., announced that she would no longer …

Trump Is Being Impeached Because He Keeps Doing What Russia Wants  —  “Pro-Kremlin proxy Vladimir Zhirinovskiy, leader of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, proclaimed just before the election that if President-elect Trump won, Russia would ‘drink champagne’ in anticipation …