10 things you need to know today: November 17, 2019

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1. Newly released testimony transcripts shed more light on Trump call, Sondland's role
2. Democratic Gov. Edwards wins re-election in Louisiana
3. Buttigieg surges, gains lead in latest Iowa poll
4. OMB official testifies in impeachment inquiry
5. Leaked documents reveal China's crackdown on Muslim population
6. Hong Kong protests continue amid violence
7. Aramco valued at up to $1.7 trillion ahead of IPO
8. Rajapaksa wins Sri Lanka presidential elections
9. Study finds that medicine is just as effective in preventing heart attacks as surgery
10. 8 teams watch Kaepernick workout

published 17 November 2019

1. Newly released testimony transcripts shed more light on Trump call, Sondland's role

Two more transcripts from the impeachment inquiry depositions were released Saturday. In one transcript, Jennifer Williams, a foreign policy aide to Vice President Mike Pence who was listening in on the July phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that Trump's insistence that Kyiv carry out investigations during the call seemed "unusual and inappropriate." She also said she viewed parts of the discussion to be based on Trump's "personal political agenda." The House also released the transcript of the testimony delivered by Tim Morrison, a national security official. Morrison also testified that he was uncomfortable with the phone call. He added that Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, viewed by many to be a key figure in the inquiry, was acting on Trump's behalf when he spoke to a Ukrainian official about exchanging military aid for political investigations.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) defeated his Republican challenger Eddie Rispone, a wealthy businessman who had President Trump's backing, to secure another term in Baton Rouge on Satuday. After polls predicted a close race, Edwards edged Rispone by about 40,000 votes, carrying most of the state's urban centers. Rural areas mostly supported Rispone. Edwards' victory is widely viewed as a setback for Trump and the GOP. "If this campaign has taught us anything, it's that the partisan forces in Washington, D.C., are not enough to break through the bonds that we share as Louisianans," Edwards said during his victory speech.

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South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg took the lead for the first time in the latest Democratic primary poll out of Iowa. The Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll, released Saturday, showed the mayor surging to the top ahead of Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Vice President Joe Biden. Buttigieg received support from 25 percent of likely Iowa caucusgoers in the poll, a startling 16 point leap from his September standing. Warren, who was leading the September poll, fell by six points to 16 percent, while Biden and Sanders were right behind her at 15 percent. Biden, the early frontrunner, fell another five percentage points, but Sanders picked up four.

Mark Sandy, an official at the Office of Management and Budget, privately testified Saturday in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. During his testimony, Sandy reportedly described the White House's decision to freeze military aid to Ukraine as highly irregular and said that senior officials in the OMB were unable to provide an explanation for the delay. Trump has been accused of halting the aid until Ukraine investigated his domestic political rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden. Sandy, who was subpoenaed, is the first official from the OMB to meet with investigators. Others in his office have refused to comply with the inquiry. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said Sandy's deposition was "technical" in nature and that Congress is now working to figure out how the process of implementing the hold on the aid played out.

An anonymous member of the Chinese political establishment leaked over 400 pages of internal documents to The New York Times, which provide an "unprecedented inside view" into Beijing's crackdown on China's Muslim population. The Times notes that the most detailed discussion on the "indoctrination camps" in Xinjiang, where as many as 1 million members of ethnic groups that practice Islam are being held, are found in a directive that outlines how party officials should handle minority students returning home in the summer of 2017 to find that their family members had been sent to Xinjiang. Officials were advised to tell the students their relatives were "in treatment" after exposure to radical Islam, and respond with increasingly firm replies when pressed on the matter, highlighting the narrative the government had carved out to justify the internment.

Violence overshadowed Hong Kong's pro-democracy, anti-government protests this weekend, and the situation has reportedly not shown any signs of slowing down. Demonstrators reportedly threw bricks and Molotov cocktails at Hong Kong police officers, and a police media-liaison officer was hit in the leg by an arrow. In return, the police fired tear gas and water cannons at the protesters. A clash between student protesters and police at Hong Kong's Polytechnic University led authorities to issue a warning for people to leave the campus. All schools in the city are expected to remain closed Monday due to safety concerns.

Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco set its valuation between $1.6 trillion and $1.7 trillion on Sunday, which is below the $2 trillion price tag predicted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Still, the figure keeps the state-owned company in the running to set up one of the world's largest initial public offerings. Aramco said it aims to price the offering at somewhere between $8 and $8.52 per share with the goal of selling 3 billion shares. At the midpoint price range, Aramco could reportedly raise up to $25 billion from the offering, which is how much Alibaba raised with its IPO. The valuation likely fell short of Saudi Arabia's initial goal because of geopolitical, operational, and governance risks, per The Wall Street Journal.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the Sri Lankan presidency Saturday, defeating opponent Sajith Premadasa, who represented the country's ruling United National Party. Rajapaksa secured just over 52 percent of the vote, while Premadasa picked up just under 42 percent. There were at least 69 violent incidents on election day, but turnout reportedly still reached a record high of 85 percent. Rajapaksa, a former defense secretary and brother of Sri Lanka's two-time former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, campaigned on national security issues in the wake of coordinated bomb attacks in the country in April which killed at least 269 people. Rajapaksa is also known for his role in Sri Lanka's Civil War, which garnered him the nickname "the Terminator" following the defeat of the Tamil rebels.

A new major federally funded study released Saturday at The American Heart Association's annual scientific conference found that stents and coronary bypass surgery are no more effective than drug treatment and better health habits in preventing heart attacks. The study pertains to people who have narrowed coronary arteries, but are not actually suffering acute symptoms. Typically in those cases, doctors will implement a stent or perform bypass surgery to redirect blood around a blockage even when patients don't show any symptoms or only feel discomfort when they exert themselves. But, per the new study, these interventions aren't actually more successful than cholesterol-lowering drugs and other changes in health habits. Stents and surgery do, however, work better for relieving symptoms related to frequent chest pain. The results of the study are likely to alter medical practice and increase debate between preventative and interventional cardiologists.

Free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has not played in the NFL since 2016 when he kneeled in protest against police violence in the U.S. during the national anthem before games, participated in a 40-minute workout for eight teams in Atlanta on Saturday. Representatives from the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets, Washington Redskins, Detroit Lions, Tennessee Titans, and his old franchise the San Francisco 49ers were among those who showed up to watch him throw. The NFL had initially set up a workout so that all 32 teams could scout the quarterback, but Kaepernick didn't agree to all the terms offered by the league, so he invited teams and reporters to a nearby facility. After the workout, Kaepernick challenged the league and teams to "stop running from the truth" and reiterated that he's been ready to get back on the field for three years.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.