Nightly Brief

Top CNS stories for today including the report that Democrats will use as the basis to impeach President Donald Trump comes up for review and a vote this week; A federal judge paved the way for Rudy Giuliani’s associate Lev Parnas to comply with a House subpoena for information relevant to the impeachment inquiry; Embattled GOP Congressman Duncan Hunter said he will plead guilty to federal charges of campaign finance fraud after claiming for over a year the prosecution against him was a “political witch hunt,” and more.

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National

President Donald Trump reviews the troops during a full honors welcoming ceremony for Secretary of Defense Mark Esper at the Pentagon in Washington on July 25, 2019. If there was one day that crystallized all the forces that led to the impeachment investigation of Trump, it was July 25. That was the day of his phone call with Ukraine’s new leader, pressing him for a political favor. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

1.) The report that Democrats will use as the basis to impeach President Donald Trump comes up for review and a vote this week, inching the White House ever closer toward a historic and assuredly contentious trial in the Senate.

Lev Parnas, center, arrives for his arraignment, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019 in New York. He and Igor Fruman are charged with conspiracy to make illegal contributions to political committees supporting President Donald Trump and other Republicans. Prosecutors say the pair wanted to use the donations to lobby U.S. politicians to oust the country's ambassador to Ukraine. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

2.) A federal judge paved the way on Monday for Rudy Giuliani’s associate Lev Parnas to comply with a House subpoena for information relevant to the impeachment of President Trump.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., right, speaks at a protest outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, Dec. 2, 2019, during arguments in the first gun rights case before the Supreme Court in nine years. The case was filed by three New York City gun owners who are challenging a ban on carrying a licensed handgun outside city limits to a gun range, shooting competition or second home outside city limits. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

3.) Trying to knock the teeth out of the first gun-rights case to go before the Supreme Court in nearly a decade, a lawyer for New York City told the justices Monday that the law being challenged is no longer enforced, thus mooting the issue.

FILE - In this Dec. 8, 2013 file photo, steel beams sit outside Arena de Sao Paulo in Sao Paulo, Brazil. President Donald Trump on Dec. 2, 2019 accused Brazil and Argentina of hurting American farmers through currency manipulation and said he’ll slap tariffs on their steel and aluminum imports to retaliate. (AP Photo/Ferdinand Ostrop, File)

4.) The United States will impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from Brazil and Argentina, President Trump announced Monday morning.

Regional

FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2018, file photo, Republican U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., leaves an arraignment hearing in San Diego after he and his wife, Margaret, pleaded not guilty to charges they illegally used his campaign account for personal expenses. Hunter is charged with looting his own campaign cash to finance vacations, golf and other personal expenses, then trying to cover it up. The Republican congressman says he's the target of politically biased prosecutors. A federal judge in San Diego is scheduled Monday, July 1, 2019, to consider if Hunter is right. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

5.) Embattled GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter said Monday he will plead guilty to federal charges of campaign finance fraud after claiming for over a year the prosecution against him was a “political witch hunt.”

6.) Lawyers for two New Hampshire workers seeking a refund of union fees they paid in the years before the Supreme Court shook up the landscape struggled to persuade the First Circuit on Monday to revive their case.

International

Norbert Walter-Borjans, left, and Saskia Esken stand on the podium after winning the member voting of the Social Democratic Party, SPD, chairmanship at the party's headquarters in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2019. Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken beat the rival team of Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Klara Geywitz in a runoff ballot of the Social Democrats’ members, according to results announced Saturday. (Joerg Carstensen/dpa via AP)

7.) German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition partners, the struggling center-left Social Democrats, picked a pair of left-leaning politicians to lead the party, a surprise move that will seriously test the so-called grand coalition with Merkel’s conservatives.

The International Court of Justice on Monday, Dec. 2, 2019, the first day of hearings in a dispute between Qatar and Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. (Photo via UN/ICJ-CIJ/Frank van Beek)

8.) Four Middle Eastern countries delivered the first round of oral arguments Monday before the International Court of Justice in a dispute over airspace restrictions, claiming the court has jurisdiction to take up their case against Qatar.

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