Traces of explosives found at pipelines:Â Sweden said this morning that traces of explosives have been found where pipelines under the Baltic Sea that carry Russian natural gas to European countries broke open in September. The Swedish authorities said the investigation into the breaks of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in four places is continuing.
Greene speaks her mind:Â Extremist right-wing Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia told a news conference yesterday that the Russian soldiers who invaded Ukraine and committed war crimes are the same as immigrants who come to the U.S. seeking to start a new life. Greene also called for an investigation of the Department of Justice for bringing criminal charges against people who invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and attempted to overthrow the government.
Archbishop apologizes:Â Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore last night issued an apology to victims of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of priests in the archdiocese. His move followed the announcement by Maryland’s Attorney General Brian Frosh that his office has finished a report showing that 158 Roman Catholic priests in the Baltimore Archdiocese assaulted 600 victims over the past 80 years. Frosh has asked a court for permission to make the report public.
Some Twitter employees quit: Reports from inside Twitter indicate that hundreds of employees have chosen to quit the company rather than continue working under new boss Elon Musk. When Musk took over, he almost immediately fired about half of the company’s more than 7,000 employees and imposed new work rules requiring long hours. Twitter employees had until yesterday to sign an agreement to do what Musk orders or leave.
North Korea launches ICBM:Â North Korea today launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that Japanese and South Korean experts said has the range to reach the entire U.S. The missile landed in waters west of the Japanese Island Hokkaido.
Conviction in Russian money case: Jessie Benton, who is a former aide to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, was convicted of helping arrange an illegal campaign contribution from a Russian source to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. He could face up to 20 years in prison at sentencing, which is scheduled for February. Benton’s lawyer says they’ll appeal the conviction.
No beer at the World Cup stadiums: The organizers of the Qatar World Cup will not allow beer sales within the stadiums hosting the quadrennial soccer event. FIFA, the event”™s organizer, had initially planned to allow for Budweiser beer to be sold in tents around the stadiums before and after the matches, but Qatar is a conservative Muslim-majority nation where alcohol sales are limited to hotel bars and restaurants away from street view. The remaining options for beer sales during the World Cup will be at hotels or a FIFA Fan Festival that is being organized away from the stadiums.
Home sales down again: U.S. existing home sales fell for a ninth straight month in October. The National Association of Realtors reported sales were down 5.9% from September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.43 million, the lowest rate since May 2020, while year over-year sales were down 28.4%. This marked the longest streak of declining sales ever recorded.
Saudi prince gains U.S. diplomatic immunity: The Biden administration has informed a U.S. court that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin SalmanӪs is shielded from a civil lawsuit filed by the fianc̩e of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi due to his position as a head of government. Khashoggi was a Saudi exile who wrote commentary for the Washington Post that criticized the princeӪs government, and in 2018 he was killed in his nationӪs Istanbul consulate where he was seeking papers that would enable him to marry Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish citizen. According to the Wall Street Journal, Prince Mohammed avoided travel to the U.S. since 2018 because he was not guaranteed immunity from prosecution or lawsuits.
Rare bird unseen in 140 years is located: The black-naped pheasant-pigeon, a rare bird that has not been seen since 1882, was sighted by researchers on Fergusson Island off Papua New Guinea. Researchers had received information from locals that the bird was not extinct, but previous attempts to affirm its survival came up empty until cameras set up in its forest habitat captured its image. “As I was scrolling through the photos, I was stunned by this photo of this bird walking right past our camera,” Cornell University researcher Jordan Boersma said in a BBC interview.
“Hogan’s Heroes” star Robert Clary dies at 96: Robert Clary, a French-born entertainer who survived the Nazi concentration camps during his youth and gained international fame as the feisty Cpl. Louis LeBeau in the sitcom classic “Hogan”™s Heroes,” passed away at the age of 96. Clary first gained wide attention from audiences in the Broadway and film versions of the musical revue “New Faces” and enjoyed a long career in films, television and nightclubs. He was the sole member of his family to survive the Holocaust and detailed his survival in the 1985 documentary “Robert Clary, A5714: A Memoir of Liberation” and his 2001 memoir “From the Holocaust to Hogan”™s Heroes: The Autobiography of Robert Clary.”
Robert Clary photo courtesy of CBS
