The House will take its first vote on the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump on Thursday, forcing lawmakers to go on record in support or opposition of the investigation and dictating the rules for its next phase.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Monday that the vote would “affirm” the existing probe, now in its sixth week, and establish which hearings would be open and how the transcripts from witnesses who have already testified in closed sessions would be released. Pelosi said the vote also would grant due process to the president and his attorney, countering a repeated criticism by Trump that he has been treated unfairly.

President Trump signaled Monday that he plans to nominate his acting Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief Uttam Dhillon to fill the role permanently.
Trump praised Dhillon for doing a “great job” during remarks at the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s annual conference in Chicago on Monday, and said he would soon not be “acting.”
“Soon, Uttam will not be ‘acting.’ He’s done a great job. So he doesn’t know this yet, but soon you will not be acting. Congratulations,” Trump said.
“Thank you, sir,” Dhillon replied.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

Congressmen Mark Meadows and Matt Gaetz weigh in on impeachment inquiry, takedown of ISIS leader on ‘Hannity.’
WATCH:

You can’t take a selfie on Google’s newest phone. It doesn’t even make calls.
It’s just a piece of paper, printed with a few pieces of information at home and folded into a rectangle. With a few snips of a scissors, it can hold a credit card.
The Paper Phone is part of a new package of “digital well-being experiments” that the company says is aimed at giving users a “digital detox.” It arrived the same week Google launched its latest phone: the $800 Pixel 4, which has built-in radar technology that can be controlled by a user’s hand motions.
Google’s Paper Phone is the latest in a string of offerings attempting to grab the attention of an audience weary of the ever-expanding presence of tech in our lives, as well as the feeling of being chained to your phone.

Police officers arrested an Arab youth who was suspected of trying to stab people in the Old City on Monday, police said.
According to the statement, the suspect attempted to stab a group of Border Police officers near Herod’s Gate, one of the gates on the northern end of the city walls.
The suspect was detained after a brief chase through the Old City. Only the assailant was wounded, police said in a statement.
Read more at Times of Israel.
{Matzav.com}

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holdings became the first space-tourism business to go public as it began trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange with a market value of about $1 billion.
The listing, carried out through a merger with shell investment company that was already trading, secures vital new funding for Branson as the British entrepreneur competes with fellow billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in what’s been dubbed “the new space race.”
Investors are being asked to back a project that’s already been running for 15 years without yet achieving a first commercial launch, and which came close to folding following a fatal crash during a 2014 test flight.

Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin is scheduled to host a major conference on anti-Semitism next week at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. Panelists will include Katharina von Schnurbein of the European Union; Elan Carr from the United States; Felix Klein of Germany; Lord Erik Pickles of Great Britain; and Frédéric Potier from France.
All five representatives were appointed by their respective governments to spearhead activities to counter the scourge of anti-Semitism in their home countries; this will be the first time they all gather on the same stage. The conference is set to take place on Nov. 4, around one week before the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht is commemorated across the globe.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Sunday it had agreed to withdraw more than 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Turkish border, an announcement welcomed by Damascus which said Turkey should now end its “aggression” in northeast Syria.
Turkey launched its cross-border offensive on Oct. 9 targeting Kurdish YPG forces in northeast Syria after President Donald Trump pulled US troops out of the area.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia’s Vladimir Putin then agreed on Oct. 22 that Syrian border guards and Russian military police would clear the border area up to 30 kilometers into Syria of YPG fighters over a six-day period that ends Tuesday.

President Trump on Monday used his first trip to Chicago as president to tear into the city and its leadership, comparing its violence to Afghanistan and blasting officials as inept and disloyal to the U.S.
“It’s embarrassing to us as a nation,” he said of the city’s crime rate. “All over the world, they’re talking about Chicago. Afghanistan is a safe place by comparison.”
“It’s true,” Trump added after some in the audience chuckled.