CNN:  “White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who dropped off President Joe Biden’s international trip shortly before he departed, has tested positive for coronavirus after members of her household did, she said in a statement Sunday.  Psaki, who is vaccinated, said she last saw Biden Tuesday outside while masked.

“‘On Wednesday, in coordination with senior leadership at the White House and the medical team, I made the decision not to travel on the foreign trip with the President due to a family emergency, which was members of my household testing positive for COVID-19,’ Psaki said in a statement. ‘Since then, I have quarantined and tested negative (via PCR) for COVID on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. However, today, I tested positive for COVID.’

“Psaki said she was disclosing the positive test result ‘out of an abundance of transparency.’ She added that she has experienced mild symptoms and is working remotely.  She continued: ‘I will plan to return to work in person at the conclusion of the ten day quarantine following a negative rapid test, which is an additional White House requirement, beyond CDC guidance, taken out of an abundance of caution.'”

Seven of the eight members of the US military who comprised the jury that sentenced Pakistan-native Majid Khan to 26 years in prison last week presented a handwritten letter to the court condemning his treatment at the hands of his American jailors, the New York Times reports.  The letter called the abuse Khan suffered “a stain on the moral fiber of America.”

The seven senior officers of eight on the jury, comprised of six Army and Navy officers and a Marine, issued the two-page letter after hearing two hours of testimony from Khan about the torture and abuse inflicted on the prisoner by interrogators, including members of the Central Intelligence Agency.  According to him, most of the abuse happened as he was shuffled among so-called “black sites” and prisons in Pakistan, Afghanistan and an unknown third country before being imprisoned at Guantanamo on the island of Cuba.

“Mr. Khan was subjected to physical and psychological abuse well beyond approved enhanced interrogation techniques, instead being closer to torture performed by the most abusive regimes in modern history,” according to the letter, which was obtained by The New York Times.

In a display of international resolve, an American B-1B bomber escorted by fighter aircraft from four Middle East nations flew over the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which 20% of the worldwide supply of oil passes, Politico reports.

The flyover was a show of unity in the face of rising Iranian influence in the region as Iran seeks to re-engage in nuclear negotiations.  The escorts–fighter jets from Bahrain, Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia–and the American B-1 continued their flight up to the Red Sea, its narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Egypt’s Suez Canal.

The show of force was meant to address rising tensions with Iran in the Persian Gulf area, as well as a show to pirate operating from the Red Sea and Arabian Sea.  The fighters came from various bases in their home countries, while the B-1B flew from the 37th Bomb Squadron based at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.

Washington Post:  “Biden, saying global supply chains must be improved, pledged Sunday to provide additional funding and improved management of mineral stockpiles to ease problems with production and moving goods to market.  ‘Supply chain is something that most of our citizens never think twice about unless something goes wrong,’ he said in remarks at the G-20 summit. ‘And during this pandemic, we’ve seen delays and backlogs of goods.’

“Slowdowns in supply chains have led to massive delays of goods moving internationally and threaten to slow the economic recovery from the pandemic, both globally and in the United States. The problems have caused huge increases in shipping costs, fueling inflation — which, in turn, could become a political problem for Biden and the Democratic Party.

“Biden said he would sign an executive order Sunday giving the Pentagon the ability to more quickly release material from the National Defense Stockpile. He also announced an effort to cut the customs-related red tape that has delayed goods flowing through Southeast Asia. And he offered technical assistance to break bottlenecks that are slowing supply routes through Mexico and Central America. ‘Now that we have seen how vulnerable these lines of global commerce can be, we cannot go back to business as usual,’ Biden said.

American Airlines has been forced to cancel more than 800 flights scheduled for Sunday, bringing the total canceled since Friday to 1,600, as lingering effects of bad weather in Texas has impacted its ability to staff flights, the Associated Press reports.

The Dallas-Fort Worth airport, a key hub in American’s operations, had limited operations starting late last week due to high winds.  This required shutting down runways at DFW, resulting in fewer planes being able to land and take off.  That subsequently led to planes and crews being stranded at various airports.

“To make sure we are taking care of our customers and providing scheduling certainty for our crews, we have adjusted our operation for the last few days this month by proactively canceling some flights,” David Seymour, the airline’s chief operating officer, said in a note to employees on Saturday.

“Saudi Arabian state oil producer Aramco has said its third-quarter net profit more than doubled, boosted by higher crude oil prices and volumes sold, beating analysts’ forecasts,” reports Al Jazeera. “Net income jumped to $30.4bn for the quarter to September 30 from $11.8bn a year earlier, it said in a filing on Sunday. That was above the median net profit forecast of $28.4bn from four analysts.”

“A search is ongoing in eastern Texas for a gunman who opened fire at a Halloween party attended by ‘at least a couple hundred’ revelers, killing one and injuring nine,” reports ABCNews.

Holiday shootings are quickly becoming a key tradition for American red-state celebrations. “The shooting started around 11:56 p.m. Saturday at Octavia’s Activity Center in Texarkana, according to a statement Sunday morning from the Texarkana Police Department.”

Special thanks to Twitter user JennaScribbles for the grab.

“Federal prosecutors say an infamous Capitol attack defendant who traveled to Washington on a private plane and called Jan. 6 ‘one of the best days of my life’ should spend time in prison, in part because she didn’t think she would. Jenna Ryan was arrested in January after she openly bragged about her exploits at the Capitol on social media, livestreaming on Facebook from inside the building and tweeting a photo of herself standing at a broken window, captioning it ‘if the news doesn’t stop lying about us we’re going to come after their studios next…'”

“Ahead of Ryan’s sentencing this week, federal prosecutors said she should spend 60 days in prison because she knew the day could turn violent and said she was ‘going to war,’ spread false information about the riot, lied about her participation in the riot, and ‘sought to exploit her presence during the attack on the Capitol for profit.’ The Justice Department’s sentencing memo says that Ryan was ‘publicly cheerleading’ a violent attack that ‘forced an interruption of the certification of the 2020 Electoral College vote count, threatened the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 Presidential election, injured more than one hundred law enforcement officers, and resulted in more than a million dollars’ worth of property damage.’ Moreover, the government said, Ryan’s tweet stating she had ‘blonde hair white skin a great job a great future and I’m not going to jail’ showed she thought she was immune from punishment for her crimes because of her race and physical appearance. ‘A defendant who believes she is immune from strict punishment because of her race and physical appearance may reoffend because the consequences for wrongdoing will never, in the defendant’s mind, be severe even when severity is merited,’ prosecutors write. ‘Perhaps the most compelling need for specific deterrence arises from the defendant’s misguided belief that she is above the law, or at least insulated from incarceration'” – Huffington Post.

CNN: “The judge in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, made headlines last week by reiterating his longstanding rule of not allowing prosecutors to refer to people as ‘victims’ before juries in his courtroom. At the same time, Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder said at a pretrial hearing that the men who were shot could be described as ‘looters’ or ‘rioters’ if the defense can show they engaged in such activity during protests after a police officer shot Jacob Blake in August 2020, leaving Blake paralyzed. ‘Let the evidence show what the evidence shows – that any or one of these people were engaged in arson, rioting or looting, then I’m not going to tell the defense they can’t call them that,’ Schroeder said in a closely watched pretrial hearing a week before the start of jury selection on Monday.”

“His decision immediately sparked debate and, in some cases, outrage in legal circles. The longest serving active judge in Wisconsin’s trial courts was, once again, thrust into the spotlight. ‘His word is final and he’s not afraid to make tough decisions,’ said Dan Adams, a Wisconsin criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor. Schroeder, 75, has come under scrutiny many times during his nearly 40 years on the bench: From a 2018 sentence – thrown out on appeal – requiring a convicted shoplifter to tell store managers she was on supervision for retail theft to ordering AIDS tests for sex workers in the late 1980s. ‘He has a reputation for doing what he believes is the right thing and being an independent thinker,’ said William Lynch, a retired attorney who served on the board of the ACLU of Wisconsin at the time of Schroeder ruling about the AIDS tests.”

“If I endorse somebody, they win,” Trump declared.  “If I endorse somebody, they win.  I think I’m 148-2.  [Lie.  Heck, he lost two in one special 2021 election for Senate alone.]  That’s a pretty good number.”

“And you endorsed Youngkin,” Jrudge Jeerline says.

“And I did endorse Youngkin,” Trump confirms.  “I hope it’s not gonna be three.  Okay?  You understand that?  I did.  I endorse him strongly.  He’s a good man.”

Washington Post:  “A renewed buildup of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border has raised concern among some officials in the United States and Europe who are tracking what they consider irregular movements of equipment and personnel on Russia’s western flank.  The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the troop movements have reignited concerns that arose in April, when the largest buildup of troops by Russia near the Ukrainian border in years sparked an international outcry.

“The renewed movements of Russian forces in the area come as the Kremlin embraces a harder line on Ukraine. Russian officials from President Vladimir Putin on down have escalated their rhetoric in recent months, attacking Kyiv’s Western ties and even questioning its sovereignty. Putin has warned that any expansion of NATO military infrastructure on Ukrainian territory represents a ‘red line’ for Moscow.  The situation also comes as the simmering 7½-year conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donbas region enters a new stage. On Oct. 26, Ukraine’s military confirmed it had used a Turkish-made drone against a position in Donbas, the first time Kyiv has employed the technology in combat, prompting an outcry from Moscow.

“Relations between Moscow and NATO are especially tense. Russia suspended its mission to NATO in Brussels on Oct. 18 after the alliance expelled eight members of the Russian mission on accusations of espionage.  What the Russian forces gathering near the Ukrainian border are doing is unclear.  Videos have surfaced on social media in recent days showing Russian military trains and convoys moving large quantities of military hardware, including tanks and missiles, in southern and western Russia.”

(A previous version of this story had the wrong document number and referred to an earlier document submitted in this case. This story has been corrected to reflect statements from Document #21, which was filed by the Department of Justice on October 30th.)

We’re all frustrated with the slow pace of the January 6th investigation. We’re down to just a year before the next election and it feels like things are dragging on endlessly and Democrats just don’t have any sense of urgency to get things taken care of in the little bit of time that’s left. Fortunately, there is hope, A new filing in the case that the forrmer guy filed to try to block sharing of White House records shows a Congress that is ready to come out swinging. Here are several highlights from the filing.

Well, at least he’s not dancing….  Donald Trump joins the Atlanta crowd participating in a racist gesture to s Native Americans during a game at the World Series.  Trump was joined by his third wife, Melania, in a rare appearance with her husband.  (Note how she only starts the arm motion when commanded by her ersatz husband.)  After claiming he was invited to attend the game by Major League Baseball–the league has denied that and said Trump contacted the league to procure tickets–Trump was seated in perhaps the worst luxury box seats in the ballpark:  at the right field corner.

(Earlier video deleted because it was from an earlier World Series.)

NBC News:  “The United States and European Union have agreed to end a dispute over U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by former President Donald Trump in 2018, removing an irritant in transatlantic relations and averting a spike in E.U. retaliatory tariffs, U.S. officials said on Saturday.

“Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters that the deal will maintain U.S. ‘Section 232’ tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% aluminum, while allowing ‘limited volumes’ of E.U.-produced metals into the United States duty free.  It eliminates a source of friction between the allies and lets them focus on negotiating a new global trade agreement to address worldwide excess steel and aluminum capacity mainly centered in China and reduce carbon emissions from the industries.<

“E.U. trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis confirmed the deal, writing on Twitter that ‘we have agreed with U.S. to pause’ the trade dispute and launch cooperation on a future global arrangement on sustainable steel and aluminum. Dombrovskis said the deal will be formally announced by Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday.  U.S. officials did not specify the volume of duty-free steel to be allowed into the United States under a tariff-rate quota system agreed upon with the E.U.”

Washington Post:  “Goodluck Nwauzor fled Boko Haram militants in Nigeria only to end up cleaning showers for $1 a day while housed at one of the United States’ largest immigrant detention facilities.  Now his testimony has helped convince a federal jury that GEO Group, which runs the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Wash., violated the state’s minimum wage laws and owes thousands of immigrant detainees $17.3 million in backpay.

“’I feel so great, and I thank almighty God, who made it possible,’ Nwauzor told The Washington Post by phone Saturday.  ‘I really appreciate the jury’s decision.’  The decision on Friday means Nwauzor and roughly 10,000 other detainees will receive individual awards ranging from $7 for a single day worked, to more than $30,000 in the instance of a detainee who worked almost 700 days, according to Adam J. Berger of the Seattle-based Schroeter Goldmark & Benderorthat, the law firm representing Nwauzor and the other detainees.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan will decide how much money GEO Group must pay the state for unjust enrichment — a sum on top of the $17.3 million already ordered.  Nwauzor’s attorneys called the jury’s award “precedent-setting,” while labor experts said it could have wider implications. Erin Hutton, a University of Buffalo sociology professor who authored a book on coerced labor, said the jury’s award sends a strong message to corporations that labor protections extend to people in pretrial detention.

Associated Press:  “Ready to put a stake in a word that just irritates you? Lake Superior State University is accepting candidates for its 47th annual tongue-in-cheek list of words or phrases that should be banished.

“The deadline to submit online entries is 8 a.m. EST on Nov. 30. The results will be announced on Dec. 31.  COVID-19 lingo dominated the list last year, including ‘COVID-19,’ ‘social distancing’ and the much-repeated phrase, ‘We’re all in this together.’

“‘You’d better believe that every year we look forward to what sets off grammarians, philosophers, pundits, lovers of language, and haters of miscommunication in the public interest, if you will,’ said LSSU President Rodney Hanley.  With that remark, Hanley covered some of the 1,000-plus banned words or phrases in the Lake Superior State archive. The late W.T. Rabe, who was public relations director, and faculty came up with the first list at a New Year’s Eve party in 1975.”

In an episode of civil unrest that won’t be reported on Fox News, students from Michigan State University flipped cars and caused havoc in East Lansing after the school beat in-state rival Michigan in football Saturday afternoon.  Michigan State has a long history of marking sports victories with violence and property destruction, with similar displays in 1998, 1999, 2005, 2013 and 2019.

New York Times: “Just days after Donald J. Trump left the White House, two former contestants on his reality show, ‘The Apprentice,’ approached him with a pitch. Wes Moss and Andy Litinsky wanted to create a conservative media giant. Trump was taken with the idea. But he had to figure out how to pay for it. This month, the former president found a way. He agreed to merge his social media venture with what’s known as a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The result is that Trump – largely shut out of the mainstream financial industry because of his history of bankruptcies and loan defaults – secured nearly $300 million in funding for his new business. To get his deal done, Trump ventured into an unregulated and sometimes shadowy corner of Wall Street, working with an unlikely cast of characters: the former ‘Apprentice’ contestants, a small Chinese investment firm and a little-known Miami banker named Patrick Orlando. Orlando had been discussing a deal with Trump since at least March. That was well before his SPAC, Digital World Acquisition, made its debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange last month. In doing so, Orlando’s SPAC may have skirted securities laws and stock exchange rules, lawyers said.”

“SPACs sell their shares to investors through an initial public offering and then find a private company with which to merge. Because SPACs are empty vessels, stock exchanges allow them to list their shares without disclosing much financial information. But that creates opportunities for SPACs to serve as backdoor vehicles for companies to go public without receiving the kind of investor scrutiny they would in a traditional listing. To prevent that, SPACs aren’t supposed to have a merger planned at the time of their IPO. Lawyers and industry officials said that talks between Orlando and Trump or their associates consequently could draw scrutiny from the SEC.”

“Another issue is that Digital World’s securities filings repeatedly stated that the company and its executives had not engaged in any ‘substantive discussions, directly or indirectly,’ with a target company – even though Orlando had been in discussions with Trump. Given the politically fraught nature of a deal with Trump, securities lawyers said that Digital World’s lack of disclosure about those conversations could be considered an omission of ‘material information.'”