LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A major storm slammed the Southland Thursday, shutting down major freeways while toppling trees, prompting serious flooding and creating chaos on roadways.

Scattered light rain and showers fell in the Los Angeles area by late Christmas afternoon, but the brunt of the storm hit about 9 p.m. Wednesday and was expected to continue through early afternoon Thursday. A winter storm warning remains in effect until 10 p.m. Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

The California Highway Patrol said the 5 Freeway through the Grapevine and the 15 Freeway through the Cajon Pass were shut down in both directions after the heavy snow left multiple vehicles trapped.
No estimate was available for when the interstate might reopen.

The storm brought not only snow, but strong winds, heavy rain and cold temperatures.

RELATED: Latest weather forecasts and maps

Torrential downpours prompted the closure of 118 Freeway near the 405 Freeway in Mission Hills. The closure was later canceled, but not before several drivers became stuck after attempting to cross the washed-out roadway.

The 710 Freeway near Highway 91 in Long Beach turned into a river, with multiple vehicles brought to a standstill as they attempted to barrel through standing water. The flooding prompted a nearly three-hour closure in both directions.

A man was rescued from the swift waters of the Sepulveda Basin after the storm brought depths up to 6 feet, officials say. The man was taken to an area hospital to be checked for hypothermia.

One of the hardest hit areas was Alhambra, where 3.26 inches of rain fell and 2.44 inches of rain drenched Huntington.

In Woodland Hills, where 2.39 inches of rain fell, a large tree uprooted outside of an apartment complex. The tree damaged the entrance of the building and blocked all lanes of Burbank Boulevard.

The winter storm may have also caused a tree in Lynwood to come crashing down on two families’ homes in Lynwood.

“About 2, 3 in the morning, it was raining pretty hard at the time. Not sure when I heard the loud noise if it was lightning or a car crash. When I stepped outside, I was able to see a big tree on top of my house,” homeowner Andy Cisneros said.

A young girl was sleeping in her bedroom where the tree struck the other house.

“My daughter was sleeping in the room and it just came down,” homeowner Saul Zavala said. “Right now, it’s being held up by the gate and the neighbor’s car.”

No injuries were reported in the Woodland Hills or Lynwood incidents.

Burn areas were warned to prepare for possible flooding.

The Ventura County Fire Department provided sandbags to residents in Simi Valley, where the Easy Fire scorched over 1,800 acres around Halloween this year. The agency is urging the public to plan and prepare for possible flooding in the area.

In the Getty Fire burn area, K-rails were lining Sepulveda Boulevard to prevent mud and debris from blocking the road.
In cities throughout the Southland, people enjoying their holiday were caught off-guard as they emerged from seeing movies or returning Christmas gifts and had to run from cover from the wind and rain.

“It’s cold. It’s wet,” said Collin Larsh, who was at the Santa Monica pier as he visited town for the Rose Bowl. “It’s pretty windy out on the pier. But I’m from Wisconsin, and this is better than that so can’t really complain.”

Source Article from https://abc7.com/weather/heavy-rain-snow-leave-path-of-destruction-across-socal/5788205/

“It may have been inevitable that eventually you would have two candidates representing each side of the ideological divide in the party. A lot of smart people I’ve talked to lately think there’s a very good chance those two end up being Biden and Sanders,” said David Brock, a longtime Hillary Clinton ally who founded a pro-Clinton super PAC in the 2016 campaign. “They’ve both proven to be very resilient.”

Democratic insiders said they are rethinking Sanders’ bid for a few reasons: First, Warren has recently fallen in national and early state surveys. Second, Sanders has withstood the ups and downs of the primary, including a heart attack. At the same time, other candidates with once-high expectations, such as Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Beto O’Rourke, have dropped out or languished in single digits in the polls.

“I believe people should take him very seriously. He has a very good shot of winning Iowa, a very good shot of winning New Hampshire, and other than Joe Biden, the best shot of winning Nevada,” said Dan Pfeiffer, who served as an adviser to former President Barack Obama. “He could build a real head of steam heading into South Carolina and Super Tuesday.”

The durability of Sanders’ candidacy has come as a surprise even in some states where he performed strongly in 2016 and where he is attempting to improve his standing ahead of the 2020 election.

California state Sen. Scott Wiener, who defeated a Sanders-backed Democrat for his seat in the liberal-heavy San Francisco area in 2016, said Sanders has been “more resilient than I anticipated.”

“But in retrospect,” he added, “he has a very, very loyal following, and people have really stuck with him.”

Sanders is in second place in national polls, nearly 9 percentage points behind Biden, according to the most recent RealClearPolitics average. He is second in Iowa and first in New Hampshire. The latest CNN poll found he has the highest net favorability rating of any Democratic presidential candidate.

While Sanders’ supporters complain relentlessly that he has received less attention from the media than other candidates, he has also avoided sustained criticism that some of his rivals have suffered. That could be helping him, especially compared with Warren, who has recently come under fire from the left and center for her health care plan.

“If you really think about it, Bernie hasn’t been hit a lot with anything. It’s not like he’s getting hit by other campaigns,” said Michael Ceraso, a former New Hampshire director for Pete Buttigieg’s campaign who worked for Sanders in 2016.

“You sort of take for granted that he, like Biden, are institutional figures for very different reasons,” Ceraso said. “Early in the campaign, Bernie’s people said, ‘Look, this guy in these early states has a nice hold, and there’s a percentage of supporters, a quarter of the electorate will potentially go for him.’” He added, “It waned a little bit because people were looking at other options … and now they’re saying, ‘Wait a minute, this guy has been the most consistent of anyone.’”

At the beginning of the year — another high point for Sanders’ campaign, before Warren surged — some establishment Democrats talked about how to stop his momentum. Brock, who has a close relationship with many Democratic donors, said he has not heard anything like that in recent weeks: “That doesn’t mean it won’t happen. This is more of an analysis in the political world than in the donor world.”

Many moderate Democrats still dismiss Sanders’ candidacy. They believe his so-called ceiling remains intact and that Warren will depress any room for growth he might otherwise have.

“He can’t win the nomination,” said Matt Bennett, co-founder of the center-left group Third Way, adding that Sanders’ uptick is simply him “bouncing around between his ceiling and his floor a little bit more than people had thought he would.”

On the other hand, he acknowledged his staying power. “Not until the very end will people say to Bernie Sanders, ‘When are you dropping out?’”

A series of TV segments around last week’s Democratic debate illustrate the shift in how Sanders is being perceived. “We never talk about Bernie Sanders. He is actually doing pretty well in this polling,” former senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said on CNN after the event. “He’s actually picked up. And the fact is Bernie Sanders is as consistent as consistent can be.”

The same day on MSNBC, national political correspondent Steve Kornacki said, “Democratic voters like him, and if he starts winning, there could be a bandwagon effect.” GOP pollster Frank Luntz, who conducted a California focus group that found most participants thought Sanders had won the debate, said on CNBC, “I think you’re going to see continued movement. Sanders has been gaining in California over the past two months.”

Larry Cohen, chairman of the pro-Sanders group Our Revolution, said Warren’s candidacy is not a problem for Sanders if both of them can — together — amass a plurality of delegates heading into the convention.

“The math is that if you think of the voters for Warren and the voters for Sanders as two circles, yes, there is overlap, [but] most of the circles are separate,” Cohen said. “I think between them, we can get to a majority.”

If Sanders’ candidacy continues to be taken seriously, he will eventually be subjected to the scrutiny that Warren and Biden have faced for prolonged stretches. That includes an examination of his electability. “That conversation has never worked well for anyone,” Pfeiffer said.

Former California Gov. Gray Davis stopped short of saying firm support for “Medicare for All” would be an impediment for Democrats in the primary but suggested the risk for the nominee is significant.

“Californians and Americans, in general, like options — not mandates,” he said.

Faiz Shakir, Sanders’ campaign manager, said political insiders and pundits are rethinking his chances “not out of the goodness of their heart,” but because “it is harder and harder to ignore him when he’s rising in every average that you see.” And he welcomes a conversation about Sanders’ electability, he said.

“We want that,” he said. “I’d love to be able to argue why he stands a better chance to beat Donald Trump than Joe Biden.”

Christopher Cadelago contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/26/can-bernie-sanders-win-2020-election-president-089636

Murkowski, who says she remains undecided in how she will vote in the upcoming impeachment proceedings, cited the need for distance between the White House and the Senate on how the trial should be conducted.

Trump was impeached last week by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on two charges over his pressuring Ukraine to announce an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden, one of the top contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, and Biden’s son. He has been charged with abuse of power and obstructing Congress’ investigation.

Trump has said he did nothing wrong.

Republicans have a 53-seat majority in the Senate, where 51 votes are needed to pass a set of rules for the Trump trial. The actual impeachment trial in the Senate would need a two-thirds majority vote for a conviction.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not yet transmitted the articles of impeachment to the Senate, a bid to pressure Senate Republicans to reach an accord with the Democrats in the chamber on trial rules. McConnell said the Senate could not take any action until it receives the articles.

Whether or not to call witnesses has been one of the main sticking points between the Democrats and the Republicans in drafting rules for the impeachment proceedings. McConnell on Monday said that Republicans had not ruled out hearing witnesses in the impeachment trial the Republican president.

However, McConnell made clear he would not accede to a Democratic request for the Senate to agree ahead of time to take testimony during the trial.

There is little chance Trump will be convicted and removed from office through a trial in the Republican-led Senate, but the impeachment proceedings could resonate at the ballot box in November.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/26/republican-senator-disturbed-by-mcconnells-work-with-white-house-on-impeachment-trial.html

On Thursday, both candidates urged their supporters to brave the windy, rainy weather and turn out, each insisting that a big victory for him would lead to a big victory for the party on March 2.

“For years I’ve been working as your emissary for our beloved country,” Mr. Netanyahu, 70, wrote in an appeal to the voters on Thursday morning. “Now I am asking for your support.” Soon after, in a Facebook Live post, he showed himself working the phones.

Mr. Saar, 53, said he felt an awakening among the grass-roots. Voting in Tel Aviv, where he lives, he said, “We can win today and set off on a new path that will allow us to form a strong and stable government, that will allow us to unify the people of Israel — and that is the most important thing right now.”

About 116,000 paying Likud members are eligible to vote — a small fraction of those who vote for the party in general elections — and only about half have turned out for party primaries in the past.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/26/world/middleeast/netanyahu-likud-saar.html

A fast-moving winter storm barreled into Southern California early Thursday, bringing snow that closed the 5 Freeway in the Grapevine, Angeles Crest Highway and the 15 Freeway in the Cajon Pass and rain that flooded freeways across Los Angeles County.

The second of two storms this week from the Gulf of Alaska arrived on Christmas Day and continued dumping rain and snow across the southern portion of the state Thursday. Most of L.A. County has already received 1½ to 2½ inches of rain. Some regions were hit with up to 3 inches, said Tom Fisher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

While the worst of the storm has passed, Fisher said it probably will remain drizzly throughout the day. Up to half an inch of rain is expected to fall across the region before the storm is gone.

“Some areas are going to see a bit of sun, and then an hour later, it’ll cloud up again,” he said. “It’s going to be one of those days.”

Heavy snow that blanketed mountain ranges and made for difficult Christmas Day travel is expected to linger through Friday. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the San Diego and Santa Barbara County mountains for Thursday, saying heavy snow could make for dangerous travel. Up to 14 inches is expected to fall in the Santa Barbara County mountains in areas above 5,000 feet, while up to 8 inches is expected above 3,500 feet. In the mountains in San Diego County, including the cities of Julian and Pine Valley, accumulations up to 8 inches are expected up to 4,500 feet and up to 16 inches above 5,000 feet, according to the weather service.

About 4 inches of snow also fell on the Antelope Valley overnight, and another 4 inches is expected to fall throughout the day, Fisher said.

The California Highway Patrol said that around 10:30 p.m., there were multiple vehicles stuck on the 5 Freeway at the Grapevine amid heavy snowfall. Video from the 15 Freeway in the Cajon Pass early Thursday showed cars stopped on the road as flurries fell around them. The Angeles Crest Highway between Newcomb’s Ranch and Highway 39 is closed because of snow, as is Highway 33 in Ventura County.

Certain mountain areas could get as much as 2 feet of fresh powder, leaving the Mountain High and Mt. Baldy ski resorts primed for great conditions. Heavy snowfall could lead to whiteouts, the National Weather Service warned.

“There’s going to be gusty east to southeast winds between 20 and 30 mph, with gusts up to 45 mph. That means there will be snow, blowing wind, fog and low visibility,” Fisher said.

While much of the L.A. Basin escaped the snow, the pounding rain was enough to break at least one record and cause traffic headaches. In Long Beach, the storm dumped 1.03 inches of rain Wednesday, shattering the previous record for the day of 0.89 inches set in 1968.

The pouring rain caused the southbound lanes of the 710 Freeway at Slauson Avenue to flood about 1:30 a.m., forcing the California Highway Patrol to close the freeway for several hours. The transition from the westbound 91 Freeway to the northbound 605 Freeway was closed early Thursday after a tree toppled onto the road.

Los Angeles Fire Department crews rescued a man from 3 to 6 feet of water in the Sepulveda Basin in Van Nuys about 2:15 a.m., authorities said. The 52-year-old man was brought to safety and evaluated for potential hypothermia, according to spokeswoman Margaret Stewart.

The storm also prompted a tornado warning late Wednesday for parts of the Santa Barbara County coast, which was hit by powerful winds as well as rain. The warning expired at 10:30 p.m., and there were no reports of damage. But the area saw about 2 inches of rain.

Orange County got its own tornado warning early Thursday morning after a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a twister was spotted near Laguna Beach and Newport Beach, moving north at 35 mph. The tornado warning was canceled about 10 minutes later after the storm weakened, but residents were jolted awake by the emergency alerts.

This storm comes on the heels of a system that brought heavy rain — up to 3 inches in some areas in Southern California — on Sunday and Monday.

The downpour also made living conditions for migrants at a shelter close to the U.S.-Mexico border even more difficult Monday as flooding and foul sewage backups soiled the Movimiento Juventud 2000 shelter.

“The stench burns your nostrils and makes you want to puke,” said Antonio Jaramillo, a Mexican migrant who is in Tijuana after being deported from the United States. “I’m pretty sure this happens every time it rains, with the black water.”

The latest round of rain could exacerbate problems at the shelter, which has roughly 100 people staying in tents in a large indoor space.

The rain in Southern California is expected to taper off late Thursday, making way for clear skies through the weekend. But don’t stash the umbrellas yet, as forecasters say more rain looks to be on the way early next week.

San Diego Union-Tribune writer Wendy Fry contributed to this report, as did Times staff writers Rong-Gong Lin II and Benjamin Oreskes.

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-26/californias-wild-winter-begins-with-pounding-rain-and-mountain-snow-thats-closed-freeways

Christmas Day came and went with no sign of the “gift” that North Korea warned could come.

Earlier this month, Pyongyang set a year-end deadline for the United States to make new concessions in talks over the country’s nuclear arsenal.

And amid fears that North Korea was expanding a factory linked to the production of long-range nuclear missiles, the U.S. flew several spy planes over the Korean Peninsula during the holiday, according to South Korean media, citing military aircraft tracker Aircraft Spots.

It was the second time this week that the U.S. has monitored the secretive regime after flying four spy planes over the peninsula earlier this week, the news agency reported.

The Pentagon has not responded to NBC News’ requests for comment on the South Korean reports.

“South Korea and the U.S. are continuously monitoring and tracking down on North Korean movements based on a close collaboration between South Korea and the U.S. intelligence offices,” South Korea’s defense spokesperson Choi Hyun Soo said in a briefing Thursday.

“In addition, our military is resolutely maintaining standing military preparedness in case of the diverse military situation, as well as work together with the U.S. through cooperation,” she added.

This followed President Donald Trump playing down North Korea’s warnings, saying Tuesday that he could receive a “nice present instead.”

“Maybe it’s a present where he sends me a beautiful vase as opposed to a missile test. Right? I may get a vase, I may get a nice present from him, you don’t know. You never know,” Trump quipped to reporters, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, after a Christmas Eve video conference with U.S. troops from his Florida home.

According to an analysis of satellite photos provided to NBC News earlier this month, North Korea has expanded a factory linked to the production of long-range nuclear missiles.

“There is activity at a number of locations indicating that North Korea is laying the groundwork for an expansion of their ICBM program — more systems, more buildings, more capabilities,” Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, wrote in the analysis, using the acronym for intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The U.S. relationship with North Korea has been on a roller coaster ride under Trump, who has made diplomacy with Kim a centerpiece of his foreign policy efforts.

In 2017, after a ratcheting up of North Korean saber-rattling, the president warned of “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if Pyongyang continued to threaten the U.S.

Following rounds of diplomacy, Trump became the first U.S. president to meet with his North Korean counterpart at a summit in Singapore in 2018. Trump said at the time that the pair had “developed a very special bond,” and described Kim as “a very talented man.”

February’s talks in Hanoi between the two men abruptly broke down, but were followed by another historic meeting in June, when Trump took an unprecedented step into North Korea. But an October meeting between their negotiators in Sweden broke down.

More recently, Kim has said that North Korea could seek a “new path” if the U.S. persists with sanctions and pressure against the North. It has also threatened to lift a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests and resume launches over Japan.

Former National Security adviser John Bolton, whom Trump fired in September, warned this week that the North still posed a threat to the U.S. and said that the Trump administration’s approach to North Korea is more of a “rhetorical policy” than a “real policy.”

“The risk to U.S. forces and our allies is imminent and more effective policy is required before [North Korea] has the technology to threaten the American homeland,” he tweeted Monday.

As a result, Trump may be forced to admit that his approach to North Korea has failed, he said.

“The idea that we are somehow exerting maximum pressure on North Korea is just unfortunately not true,” he said in an interview with Axios published Sunday.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/christmas-day-passes-no-sign-gift-north-korea-warned-n1107196

On Christmas Eve, six days after a prominent evangelical magazine published a blistering editorial calling for President Donald Trump to be removed from office, the president and first lady ditched services at the liberal church in Palm Beach where they were married and headed to a conservative Baptist-affiliated church in West Palm Beach.

Whether the president’s decision to change the venue and denomination of his long-standing Christmas Eve tradition was tied to the editorial is not known. A White House press officer referred questions to the Florida GOP press liaison, who referred questions back to the White House.

It was the second effort Trump has made to court evangelical voters since he arrived at Mar-a-Lago on Friday — the same day his re-election campaign announced that he would go to Miami on Jan. 3 to launch an “Evangelicals for Trump” coalition.

More:Analysis: Trump more negative, prolific on Twitter amid Democratic impeachment inquiry

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/12/26/trump-christmas-evangelical-church-holiday/2748260001/

A high-profile Republican is not in line with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s strategy for President Trump’s trial. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski says she’s “disturbed” by some of McConnell’s comments. Chip Reid reports.

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Source Article from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rASGGjey-I

Typhoon Phanfone ravaged three provinces in the central Philippines over the Christmas holiday, with at least 16 people reported to have been killed.

The typhoon made landfall on Tuesday at 4:45 p.m. over Salcedo in Eastern Samar Province, according to Pagasa, the national weather agency. The eastern portion of Samar Island caught the brunt of powerful winds and rainfall as the typhoon battered the province.

Thirteen people were killed in western Visayas, the central of the three main island groups that make up the Philippines, news agencies quoted disaster agency officials as saying. Three others were reported to have died in the eastern part of the island group.

The typhoon, known in the Philippines as Ursula, was upgraded from a tropical storm as it approached the country. It led to the evacuation of more than 58,000 people and stranded thousands of travelers over the holiday period. Ferries were suspended and flights canceled.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/26/world/asia/christmas-typhoon-philippines-phanfone.html

President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump lashes out at Pelosi on Christmas, decries ‘scam impeachment’ Christmas Day passes in North Korea with no sign of ‘gift’ to US Prosecutors: Avenatti was M in debt during Nike extortion MORE on Wednesday lashed out at Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiTrump lashes out at Pelosi on Christmas, decries ‘scam impeachment’ Trump’s tweets became more negative during impeachment, finds USA Today Karl Rove argues Clinton’s impeachment was ‘dignified’ MORE (D-Calif.) in a pair of tweets Christmas night, decrying what he called a “Scam Impeachment.”

“Why should Crazy Nancy Pelosi, just because she has a slight majority in the House, be allowed to Impeach the President of the United States?” wrote Trump, who is staying at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., for the holidays.

He also called the impeachment process “very unfair.”

The tweets come a week after the House voted largely along party lines to impeach Trump. The two articles of impeachment accuse Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Pelosi has since indicated she will withhold the articles of impeachment until rules governing the trial are established by the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellTrump lashes out at Pelosi on Christmas, decries ‘scam impeachment’ Karl Rove argues Clinton’s impeachment was ‘dignified’ Murkowski ‘disturbed’ by McConnell’s pledge for ‘total coordination’ with White House on impeachment MORE (R-Ky.), who has been meeting with the White House counsel to discuss an impeachment trial, recently said he was “not impartial about this at all.”

Trump criticized Pelosi on Monday for not sending the articles to the Senate.

The Speaker defended her decision, arguing that she can’t choose trial managers until she has a clear picture of how the Senate plans to proceed.

“The House cannot choose our impeachment managers until we know what sort of trial the Senate will conduct,” Pelosi wrote. “President Trump blocked his own witnesses and documents from the House, and from the American people, on phony complaints about the House process. What is his excuse now?”

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/475928-trump-lashes-out-at-pelosi-in-christmas-tweets-decries-scam-impeachment

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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/25/asia/hong-kong-christmas-protests-intl-hnk/index.html

Snow began falling Tuesday afternoon in Anchorage. Near the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, 5 inches of snow fell by Wednesday morning, Ahsenmacher said. There was 7 inches reported in near Lake Otis Parkway and East 68th Avenue, 5 inches near Huffman Road and 6 inches throughout the Hillside.

Source Article from https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/weather/2019/12/25/the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving-more-snow-forecast-for-anchorage-after-christmas-snowfall/

PARIS — The rector of Notre Dame Cathedral says the Paris landmark is still so fragile that there’s a “50% chance” the structure might not be saved, because scaffolding installed before this year’s fire is threatening the vaults of the Gothic monument.

Monsignor Patrick Chauvet said restoration work isn’t likely to begin until 2021 — and described his “heartache” that Notre Dame couldn’t hold Christmas services this year, for the first time since the French Revolution.

“Today it is not out of danger,” he told The Associated Press on the sidelines of Christmas Eve midnight Mass in a nearby church. “It will be out of danger when we take out the remaining scaffolding.”

“Today we can say that there is maybe a 50% chance that it will be saved. There is also 50% chance of scaffolding falling onto the three vaults, so as you can see the building is still very fragile,” he said.

The 12th-century cathedral was under renovation at the time of the accidental April fire, which destroyed its roof and collapsed its spire. With no more roof to keep the massive stone structure stable, the cathedral’s surviving vaults are crucial to keeping it standing, but they are vulnerable.

Some 50,000 tubes of scaffolding crisscrossed the back of the edifice at the time of the fire, and some were damaged. Removing them without causing further problems is one of the toughest parts of the cleanup effort.

“We need to remove completely the scaffolding in order to make the building safe, so in 2021 we will probably start the restoration of the cathedral,” Chauvet said. “Once the scaffolding is removed we need to assess the state of the cathedral, the quantity of stones to be removed and replaced.”

Chauvet estimated it would take another three years after that to make it safe enough for people to re-enter the cathedral, but that the full restoration will take longer. President Emmanuel Macron has said he wants it rebuilt by 2024, when Paris hosts the Olympics, but experts have questioned whether that time frame is realistic.

Another reason it’s still too dangerous to host religious services inside Notre Dame: The fire released tons of toxic lead dust, and authorities are working to clean it up and assess related health risks.

Notre Dame’s symbolism reaches far and wide. Church officials estimated 2 million people from around the world visited the cathedral during the holiday season.

Tourists can photograph it from nearby embankments, but they can no longer hear its organs or get a close view of its stone carvings and masterpiece rose windows. The vast forecourt is barricaded, barren of its Christmas tree.

But its congregation, clergy and choir are keeping its spirit alive, and decamped Christmas celebrations to the Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois Church across from the Louvre Museum instead.

Parishioners shared sorrow about the fire, but also a feeling of solidarity.

“I remember my mother told me that she was watching TV, and that there was a fire at Notre Dame. I told her ‘it’s not possible,’ and I took my bike, and when I arrived I was crying,” said Jean-Luc Bodam, a Parisian engineer who used to cross town to attend services at the cathedral.

“We are French, we are going to try to rebuild Notre Dame as it was before, because it is a symbol,” he said.

Source Article from https://www.snopes.com/ap/2019/12/25/notre-dame-cathedral-saved/

The Taliban, who have been active in Farah, have not claimed responsibility for the abductions. However, Mr. Watandost also said that tribal elders in the province immediately launched an effort to negotiate with the Taliban to release the abducted activists. He added that phone lines were down in the region, making communicating and getting information from the area difficult.

The Taliban today hold sway over or control practically half of Afghanistan and are at their strongest since American troops invaded in 2001. They continue to stage near-daily attacks targeting Afghan and American forces, as well as government officials — even as they hold peace talks with a United States envoy tasked with negotiating an end to the 18-year conflict, America’s longest war.

The latest rallies by the activists from the People’s Peace Movement of Afghanistan started on Friday, first in southern Helmand Province, a Taliban heartland.

At a similar series of peace rallies in October, the Taliban abducted six activists from the movement in eastern Logar province but released them the same day.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/25/world/asia/taliban-abducted-activists.html

Karl RoveKarl Christian RoveWashington Post fact-checker gives Plame three Pinocchios for Libby claim Karl Rove: Both parties are ‘broken’ The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by JUUL Labs – House to vote to condemn Trump tweet MORE slammed Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiNew poll shows nearly half of voters approve of Trump’s impeachment Trump, first lady attend Christmas Eve services in Florida Democratic strategist: Impeachment is ‘moral obligation’ MORE’s (D-Calif.) decision to delay sending the articles of impeachment passed by the House to the Senate, in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

The former adviser to President George W. Bush argued that President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump chats with attorney Alan Dershowitz at Mar-a-Lago Extreme weather in 2019 broke over 120,000 records in US: report Yang asks ‘Where’s Tulsi?’ after video of Democratic candidates leaves her out MORE deserves a “dignified” impeachment process as he claims was afforded to former President Clinton. 

“Americans deserve a dignified conclusion to impeachment, as the Senate gave them with Mr. Clinton in 1999,” Rove wrote. “Impeachment always inflicts trauma on the nation. We can accept that. What the country shouldn’t accept is a continuation of this Democrat-led circus.”

In his op-ed, Rove claims that Pelosi is “venturing into treacherous constitutional territory” in her decision to hold the articles of impeachment as Senate leaders debate on an agreement for the looming trial.

“Mrs. Pelosi presumes to be the arbiter of whether the Senate has a ‘fair process.’ She told reporters: ‘So far, we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us.’ This is more than an invitation to [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell [R-Ky.] to hear her out — it’s a demand that he clear his plans with her before proceeding,” Rove said. 

“Mr. McConnell, the wiliest Majority Leader since Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1950s, won’t capitulate,” Rove continued. “He occupies the high ground of precedent, saying the Senate should proceed as it did with President Clinton. The Senate adopted rules for his trial by a 100-0 vote with the support of freshman Sen. [Charles] Schumer (D., N.Y.), now minority leader.”

At the center of the dispute is the Democratic push for witnesses to be heard at the Senate trial. Moreover, Democrats have cast doubt on some Senate Republicans’ ability to be impartial jurors after McConnell said he will be working in “total coordination” with the White House during the process.

McConnell signaled on Monday the rules on a trial are in limbo until senators return to Washington shortly after the New Year.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/475914-karl-rove-argues-clintons-impeachment-was-dignified

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Reuters

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Lisa Murkowski has described the impeachment trial as “rushed”

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski has said she is “disturbed” by her party’s stance before President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

Mr Trump was this month impeached by the Democrat-run House for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

He now faces trial in the Republican-dominated Senate, whose members are supposed to remain impartial.

However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has pledged “total co-ordination” with the White House.

Mr Trump, the third president in US history to be impeached, is unlikely to be removed from office because of the Republican control of the Senate.

The president has repeatedly described the impeachment proceedings as a “witch-hunt”.

What did Ms Murkowski say?

Ms Murkowski told Alaska’s KTUU news channel that she was uncomfortable with Mr McConnell’s comments about “total co-ordination”.

“When I heard that I was disturbed,” she said.

Media captionWhat does it take to impeach a president?

The senator also said there should be distance between the White House and the Senate over how the trial is conducted. “To me it means that we have to take that step back from being hand in glove with the defence,” she said.

At the same time, she described the impeachment proceedings as “rushed”.

Ms Murkowski, a moderate Republican, has criticised President Trump on a number of policy issues. In October 2018, she opted not to vote to confirm Mr Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, after sexual assault allegations.

What about Mr McConnell’s role?

Mr McConnell will play a key role in how the impeachment trial – which is supposed to be impartial – will be conducted.

But he publicly stated last week that he was not “an impartial juror” in the proceedings.

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Getty Images

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Mitch McConnell is confident that President Trump will be acquitted

“This is a political process. There is not anything judicial about it. Impeachment is a political decision,” he said.

And Mr McConnell also said he was confident that Mr Trump would be acquitted in the Republican-led Senate. “We will have a largely partisan outcome,” he said.

Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate have repeatedly clashed over the rules of the trial.

Democrats want assurances witnesses and documents will be allowed, to enable what they term a fair trial.

Mr McConnell has so far stopped short of agreeing ahead of time to take testimony during the trial.

What is President Trump accused of?

Mr Trump is accused of pressuring Ukraine’s president to start an investigation into his political rival, Democratic presidential front runner, Joe Biden.

Mr Trump is accused of doing this by withholding military aid and making a White House visit contingent on co-operation.

The trial could begin next month, after the holiday break.

Media captionThe story of impeachment by a Christmas choir

Want to find out more?

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50913932

Murkowski told NBC affiliate KTUU that she believes there should be distance between the Senate, which will serve as the jury for Trump’s impeachment trial, and the White House. McConnell’s comments, she said, have “further confused the process.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/25/sen-lisa-murkowski-disturbed-by-mcconnells-vow-total-coordination-with-white-house-over-impeachment/

France’s Notre Dame Cathedral, which failed to host Christmas services Wednesday for the first time in more than 200 years, may never recover from the devastating fire that collapsed the roof and an iconic spire, its rector said.

Monsignor Patrick Chauvet said the church, which dates back more than 800 years, has been left so fragile that there is a 50% chance it can’t be saved. The actual restoration probably won’t even begin this year because of conservation work aimed at rescuing the structure, he said.

“Today it is not out of danger,” he said before Christmas Eve midnight Mass at a nearby church. “It will be out of danger when we take out the remaining scaffolding.” 

The massive cathedral was dark and empty on Christmas. Services were held a mile away at Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, a church with its own renowned history dating back to the 7th century.

A wooden liturgical platform was constructed in Saint-Germain to resemble Notre Dame’s, and the cathedral’s choir sang at midnight Mass.

On April 15, millions of people around the world watched in stunned horror, glued to TVs, as flames and smoke spewed from the Gothic marvel. The fire burned for hours, virtually unabated despite the efforts of hundreds of firefighters.

Within days, more than $1 billion was pledged by thousands of donors to finance the reconstruction. It will be needed.

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/12/25/notre-dame-cathedral-may-not-saved-after-fire/2745848001/