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SpaceX launches mini satellites

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. SpaceX launched 60 mini satellites Monday, the second batch of an orbiting network meant to provide global internet coverage. (Craig Bailey/Florida Today via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX launched 60 mini satellites Monday, the second batch of an orbiting network meant to provide global internet coverage. The Falcon rocket blasted into the morning sky, marking the unprecedented fourth flight of a booster for SpaceX. The compact flat-panel satellites — just 575 pounds each — will join 60 launched in May. SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk wants to put thousands of these Starlink satellites in orbit, to offer high-speed internet service everywhere. He plans to start service next year in the northern U.S. and Canada, with global coverage for populated areas after 24 launches. Last month, Musk used an orbiting Starlink satellite to send a tweet: “Whoa, it worked!!” Employees gathered at company bases on both coasts cheered when the first-stage booster landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic. “These boosters are designed to be used 10 times. Let’s turn it around for a fifth, guys,” company’s launch commentator said. This also marked the first time SpaceX used a previously flown nose cone. The California-based company reuses rocket parts to cut costs.

Democrats, GOP to vie for impeachment narrative — on TV

WASHINGTON (AP) — Impeachable or not? Both Democrats and Republicans see the televised impeachment hearings starting this week as their first and best opportunity to shape public opinion about President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. Democrats believe the testimony will paint a vivid picture of presidential misconduct. Republicans say it will demonstrate just how lacking the evidence is for impeachment. They agree on one thing: The stakes as very high. Democrats plan a narrow focus in the hearings, and a narrative retelling of Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to investigate Democrats as his administration withheld military aid to an Eastern European ally on Russia’s border.

Clashes rock Bolivia

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Clashes rocked Bolivia on Monday following the resignation of former President Evo Morales, with his supporters and foes facing off in the streets and a tearful opposition leader laying out a possible path toward new elections. Morales stepped down Sunday following weeks of massive protests, but the resignation of every constitutionally designated successor left unclear who will take his place and how. Angry supporters of the socialist leader set barricades ablaze to block some roads leading to the country’s main airport, while his foes blocked most of the streets leading to the capital’s main square in front of Congress and the presidential palace. Police urged residents of La Paz to stay in their homes. Amid the power vacuum, opposition politician and Senate second vice-president Jeanine Anez said in an emotional address that she would take temporary control of the Senate, though it was unclear if she would be able to get approval from Congress, which is controlled by Morales supporters. “Please excuse me if my voice breaks,” Anez said between tears after arriving in Congress under heavy guard.

HK police shoot protester

HONG KONG (AP) — Following a day of violence in which one person was shot by police and another set on fire, Hong Kong’s leader pledged Monday to “spare no effort” to halt anti-government protests that have wracked the city for more than five months. The comments by Carrie Lam are likely to fuel speculation that harsher legal and police measures may be in the works. “I do not want to go into details, but I just want to make it very clear that we will spare no effort in finding ways and means that could end the violence in Hong Kong as soon as possible,” Lam told reporters. Lam also refused to accept the protesters’ demands for political concessions. “If there is still any wishful thinking that, by escalating violence, the Hong Kong SAR government will yield to pressure to satisfy the so-called political demands, I am making this statement clear and loud here: That will not happen,” Lam said, using the initials for Special Administrative Region, which describes the city’s status as a semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

Turke returning IS fighters

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey on Monday deported citizens of the United States and Denmark who fought for the Islamic State and made plans to expel other foreign nationals as the government began a new push to send back captured foreign fighters to their home countries, a Turkish official said. The move comes just over a week after the Turkish interior minister said Turkey was not a “hotel” for IS fighters and criticized Western nations for their reluctance to take back citizens who had joined the ranks of the extremist militant group as it sought to establish a “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria. Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said last week that about 1,200 foreign IS fighters were in Turkish prisons and 287 members, including women and children, were recaptured during Turkey’s offensive in Syria. Several European countries, including Britain, have stripped IS fighters of their nationalities to prevent their return. A U.S. and a Danish national were deported from Turkey on Monday, while a German national was scheduled to be deported later in the day, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Interior Ministry spokesman Ismail Catakli as saying. Seven other German nationals were scheduled to leave the country on Thursday, he said.

Winter already? Snow, deep freeze

CHICAGO (AP) — An arctic air mass that brought snow and ice to an area stretching from the Rocky Mountains to northern New England on Monday was poised to give way to record-breaking cold temperatures. In mid-Michigan, three people were killed in a two-vehicle crash that the Eaton County sheriff’s department attributed to heavy snowfall. And in Kansas, the highway patrol reported that a truck lost control on an icy highway and slammed head-on into another truck, killing an 8-year-old girl in the other vehicle. In Chicago, where as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of snow fell, an Envoy Air flight from Greensboro, North Carolina, slid off an icy runway at O’Hare International Airport as it tried to land at about 7:45 a.m. None of the 38 passengers and three crew members were injured, according to the city’s aviation department. Snowfall totals could reach up to a foot or more in some areas of Indiana, Michigan and Vermont, according to the National Weather Service. Other places in the path of the air mass saw ice and rain. Denver saw just a few inches of snow but suffered numerous accidents on icy roadways because the snow fell during the morning commute. More than 950 flights were canceled at Chicago’s airports and officials in the area opened warming centers. In Michigan, some schools closed early, as did dozens of schools in the St. Louis area.

Deval Patrick mulls Dem run

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is considering making a late run for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to two people with knowledge of his deliberations, underscoring some Democrats’ deep uncertainty about the party’s current crop of contenders. Patrick, a close friend and ally of former President Barack Obama, ruled out a presidential bid earlier this year but has since been talking with Democratic operatives and donors about launching a campaign. He has not made a final decision on whether to run, but he is expected to do so quickly, given fast-approaching deadlines to get on the ballot in key states. Patrick is the second Democrat to weigh jumping into the race at this late juncture, less than three months before the kickoff Iowa caucuses. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is also reconsidering a run, citing concerns about the current Democratic frontrunners’ ability to defeat President Donald Trump. Bloomberg is expected to make a final decision on his 2020 prospects within days. The people with knowledge of Patrick’s deliberations spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Though he ruled out a run earlier this year, Patrick reopened conversations with close friends and aides over the summer, but did not steps to form a campaign. In recent days, those conversations have intensified, with Patrick himself gauging interest in a run with donors and Democratic operatives.

US troops keep pressure on IS

A BASE IN EASTERN SYRIA (AP) — At a base in eastern Syria, a senior U.S. coalition commander said Monday that American troops who remain in Syria are redeploying to bases, including in some new locations, and working with the Kurdish-led forces to keep up the pressure on the Islamic State militants and prevent the extremists from resurging or breaking out of prisons. The commander, Air Force Maj. Gen. Eric T. Hill, said even though Bradley armored vehicles have arrived in eastern Syria, the mission’s focus has not changed. He said the “force mix,” including the mechanized armored vehicles deployed in Syria for the first time since the war against IS, has an array of capabilities to deny IS the chance to regroup. “The mission still continues. And Daesh is trying to resurge wherever they can,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for the group. He said the forces have captured 700 IS fighters since its last territorial holding fell in March. “We’ve destroyed many and war remnants and we continue to do so as we find them.” Speaking at a remote base in Syria where the Bradleys arrived last week, he said “our primary way that we do that” is through working with the U.S. partners, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The deployment of the mechanized force comes after US troops pulled out from northeastern Syria, making way for a Turkish offensive against Kurdish fighters that began last month. Only several miles away from the base, fighting between Turkish-allied fighters and the SDF was ongoing, despite a cease-fire that has so far curbed the Turkish invasion but didn’t end the violence.

Rebirth, angst and ‘new normal’

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — Tina Chandler walks outside her home and sniffs the air. “Do you smell smoke?” she asks. Even when the scent is no longer there, it haunts her. So does the fear of the monstrous winds of autumn, the kind that stoked the wildfires that destroyed her northern California neighborhood once and, in recent days, threatened it yet again. “That wind and the stink,” she says, frowning. Two years ago, the Chandlers had only minutes to escape before their longtime family home burned to the ground before their eyes. They rose from the ashes to build a new home. Their two sons bought lots down the street, one starting his home. Then, in recent weeks, they spent tense days watching the orange glow of the Kincade Fire rise behind a ridge near the new homes in their once-flattened neighborhood. California has long been seen as a golden land of opportunity. But this “new normal” — fires of enormous size and ferocity — is making everyone edgy and causing some to flee.

Top Shiite leader backs UN plan

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s most powerful Shiite religious leader said Monday he backs a U.N. roadmap aimed at meeting the demands of anti-government protesters who have been rallying in recent weeks despite a bloody crackdown by security forces, but he expressed concern that political parties would not carry them out. At least 12 protesters were wounded in new confrontations with security forces in and around central Baghdad’s Khilani Square. Most were hit directly with tear gas canisters, according to security and hospital officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Four others were killed overnight in clashes in a southern city, raising the death toll from the confrontations to 320 since the protests began last month. Protesters ran for cover while police and security forces, some of them masked, fired the tear gas in daylong confrontations that engulfed the area in gray smoke. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said he welcomed the proposals announced by the U.N. in a bid to end the unrest, according to a statement from his office after meeting in the Shiite holy city of Najaf with Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the U.N. special representative to Iraq.

Message in bottle answered

ROCKPORT, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts college student has received a response to a message he threw into the ocean when he was 10 years old. Suffolk University sophomore Max Vredenburgh says he put the letter into a glass wine bottle that he threw into the water at Long Beach in Rockport in August 2010. Vredenburgh’s father texted him Friday to say that he had received a letter from someone named “G. Dubois” who found the bottle on a beach in Southern France on Oct. 10. In Vrendenburgh’s original letter he listed some of his favorite things including apples, the beach and outer space. He also asked that the letter’s recipient “please write back.” The 19-year-old Vredenburgh posted photos of the letters to his Twitter account Friday.

Officials look into horse stabbings

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A nonprofit group which helps at-risk horses is reporting a series of stabbings involving horses in North Carolina and South Carolina. The Charlotte Observer reports Fleet of Angels says there were instances on Sunday of some horses found stabbed in their pastures. The first incident was on Sept. 25, when a retired horse in Columbus, North Carolina, was found bleeding out from a cut on his back leg. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina verified some incidents over the border last week. A social media post said that while no livestock had been attacked in the county, there had been reports of attacks on horses in Spartanburg County in South Carolina.

Most of the incidents reported were within 10 miles of Campobello, a small town north of Greenville, South Carolina.

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