House Democrats chose Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York on Wednesday as the next chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, a powerful panel that has participated in the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump and traditionally taken a lead role in scrutinizing the executive branch.
As the most senior member of the panel, Maloney has been serving as acting chairman since the Oct. 17 death of Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. But she faced a challenge from Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, who argued to his colleagues that he was better equipped to handle the rigors of impeachment and battling Republicans intent on protecting the Trump administration from scrutiny.
In the end, Democrats chose to respect seniority, electing Maloney on a 133-86 vote.

House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes gives his opening statement ahead of former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland Capitol Hill testimony.
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House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Adam Schiff delivers an opening statement to the public impeachment hearing featuring testimony from U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.
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President Trump travels to Austin, Texas to tour the Apple manufacturing plant and meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook. This takes place amid Sondland’s testimony before the House Intel Committee in the impeachment probe.
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Hungary is blocking a diplomatic effort by the European Union to issue a joint statement condemning the U.S. announcement on Monday that it does not consider Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria to be illegal, the Times of Israel reported on Wednesday.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has made it plain that Hungary will veto any E.U. statement on the settlement’s legality, a diplomatic source with direct knowledge of the matter told the Times on condition of anonymity. As a result, no text has yet been circulated among E.U. member states, according to the source.

AZERBAIJAN—Affectionately called “Mountain Jews,” the Jewish community of Qırmızı Qəsəbə (Red Village) in the Quba district of Azerbaijan is home to nearly half the Jews living in this Muslim-majority country. Believed to be the world’s only all-Jewish village outside of Israel and the United States—and the last surviving shtetl—the Red Village is situated in the northeast of the country, close to the border with Russia.
It is also historically one of the few places in the world unaffected by anti-Semitism. According to the Jews of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the country is an “oasis of tolerance,” protecting all religious minorities (Jews included) in a world where persecution has become a norm.

Tel Aviv will officially launch its free weekend transportation service this Friday, the city announced Tuesday. In collaboration with neighboring towns Givatayim, Ramat Hasharon, and Kiryat Ono, Tel Aviv will operate six routes covering over 300 kilometers. Minivans will pick up and drop off passengers at over 500 stops across the metropolitan area at a frequency of once every 30 minutes between 6 pm on Friday and 2 am on Shabbos, and between 9 am and 5 pm on Shabbos.

BRUSSELS—A few hours after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday that the United States no longer views Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria as violating international law, E.U. foreign-affairs chief Federica Mogherini stated that the European Union’s position on the issue “is clear and remains unchanged.”
“The E.U. position on Israeli settlement policy in the occupied Palestinian territory is clear and remains unchanged: All settlement activity is illegal under international law, and it erodes the viability of the two-state solution and the prospects for a lasting peace, as reaffirmed by U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334,” she said.