Nightly Brief

Top CNS stories for today including a new transcript from impeachment investigators quotes the acting White House Chief of Staff as saying Ukraine would have to open investigations sought by President Donald Trump as a condition for Ukraine’s president getting a White House visit; Alan Dershowitz brought counterclaims against the prominent lawyer for two of Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers before the ink on the lawyer’s defamation suit was even dry; The United Nations’ highest court ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear claims that Russia illegally financed separatist groups in eastern Ukraine, and more.

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National

1.) A new transcript released Friday from impeachment investigators quotes Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House Chief of Staff, as saying Ukraine would have to open investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden, his son and the 2016 presidential election as a condition for Ukraine’s president getting a White House visit.

Alan Dershowitz speaks to reporters, flanked by attorneys Howard Cooper (left) and Arthur Aidala (right) outside Manhattan Federal Court on Sept. 24, 2019. A retired Harvard Law professor, Dershowitz is fighting to nix a defamation lawsuit brought by Virginia Guiffre, who has said she was underage when Jeffrey Epstein trafficked her to have sex with Dershowitz. (Josh Russell/Courthouse News Service)

2.) Alan Dershowitz brought counterclaims against the prominent lawyer for two of Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers before the ink on the lawyer’s defamation suit was even dry.

The Supreme Court is seen in Washington on June 17, 2019. Abortion rights, and protections for young immigrants and LGBT people top an election-year agenda for the Supreme Court. Its conservative majority will have ample opportunity to flex its muscle, testing Chief Justice John Roberts’ attempts to keep the court clear of Washington partisan politics. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

3.) The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear a case that will decide whether companies with “.com” or other domains in their names can receive federal trademark protection, even if their names would otherwise be generic.

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon arrives to testify for the federal trial of Roger Stone, at federal court in Washington, Friday, Nov. 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Al Drago)

4.) Steve Bannon testified in Washington, D.C. federal court Friday that Roger Stone was the Trump campaign’s only inroad to WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential election.

International

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Wednesday, Nov 6, 2019. (Jason Lee/Pool Photo via AP)

5.) On an airplane trip back to Paris from a visit to French islands in the Indian Ocean, Emmanuel Macron did something no other French president has done: He let himself be interviewed by a journalist with Valeurs Actuelles, a magazine long associated with France’s ultra-conservative wing.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019 file photo, Presiding judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf of Somalia, third right, reads the court's verdict at the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands. The United Nations' highest court on Friday, Nov. 8 says it has jurisdiction in a case brought by Ukraine that alleges Russia breached treaties on terrorist financing and racial discrimination by arming rebels in eastern Ukraine and reining in the rights of ethnic Tartars and other minorities following its annexation of the Crimea. The court's president, Abdulqawi Yusuf, says the ruling was limited to jurisdiction and does not address the merits of Ukraine's complaints in the case.(AP Photo/Peter Dejong, file)

6.) In a big win for Ukraine, the United Nations’ highest court ruled Friday that it has jurisdiction to hear Kiev’s claims that Russia illegally financed separatist groups in eastern Ukraine.

Regional

Van Damme State Park, Little River, California (Chris Marshall / CNS)

7.) In his latest dispatch, Courthouse News’ western bureau chief communes with the sun and fog on the California coast.

FILE - In this Jan. 22, 2019 file photo, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers addresses a joint session of the Legislature in the Assembly chambers during the Governor's State of the State speech at the state Capitol, in Madison, Wis. Behind Evers is Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, left, and Senate President Roger Roth, R-Appleton. Evers tried for months for the Legislature to take up gun control bills to no avail. So he recently called a special session to force them to convene on the issue. (AP Photo/Andy Manis, File)

8.) The GOP-controlled Wisconsin Legislature quickly shut down a special floor session meant to debate gun reform, fulfilling a promise made almost immediately after the session was called by the Democratic governor.

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