Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman testifies at impeachment inquiry

Reuters / Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, arrives to testify as part of the U.S. House of Representatives impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Trump led by the House Intelligence, House Foreign Affairs and House Oversight and Reform Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington. REUTERS/Erin Scott

Vindman is the first impeachment witness to have listened in on the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump said he wanted a “favor” after Zelensky broached defense cooperation between the U.S. and Ukraine, a key component of which is American military aid.

Followers of Lenin

Moscow, Russia

Cadets and Communist party activists and supporters attend a flower-laying ceremony at Lenin’s mausoleum

Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images

Environmental activists in Melbourne

Melbourne, Australia

Environmental activists clash with police during a protest outside a mining conference

Photograph: James Ross/EPA

Grenfell fire disaster find London Fire Brigade wanting

Fewer people would have died in the Grenfell disaster if London Fire Brigade had not suffered "serious shortcomings" and "systemic" failures in its response to the fire, the official report into the tragedy has concluded.

The damning 1,000-page report also accuses Dany Cotton, London Fire Brigade’s commissioner, of "remarkable insensitivity" after she gave testimony insisting she would have done nothing differently.

Virgin Galactic's first day of trading

Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Galactic, rings the First Trade Bell to commemorate the company's first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on October 28, 2019 in New York City.

Founded in 2004, Virgin Galactic has spent years developing its space program, and after a fatal accident in 2014, has twice crossed the barrier into the final frontier. The company plans to offer weightless flights to six passengers at a time, at $250,000 a ticket for the first customers from the Summer of 2020, though it has yet to begin commercial launches.

Bottle of Macallan single malt whisky sold at Sotheby’s for record £1.5m

In 1926, a foresighted member of the Macallan family distillery in Moray, Scotland sealed a cask of single malt whisky that would not be disturbed for another 60 years. He was sealing in liquid gold.

Yesterday, one of the 40 bottles from that cask set a new world record when it was sold at auction for £1.5 million, the equivalent of about £54,000 per measure, not that anyone is ever likely to drink it.

Am Fasarinen pinnacles, Scotland

John “Jock” Calder standing on one of the Am Fasarinen pinnacles in Torridon, Scotland. Taken by John Paterson from Boat of Garten.

Dakaar 2020

Dakaar rally manager and sports coordinator drive in Saudi Arabia during preparation for the next Dakar 2020.  The race will kick off on January 5 in Jeddah and run until January 17.

Boris Johnson's hopes dashed

People react on hearing the result of a Brexit vote in the House of Commons during the Together for the Final Say march organised by the People’s Vote campaign on 20 October 2019.

Prince Jean-Christophe Napoleon gets married

Prince Jean-Christophe Napoleon and his wife Olympia Von Arco-Zinneberg come out of the cathedral under the gaze of the statue of Napoleon at the end of their wedding at Les Invalides on 20 October 2019

Jean-Christophe is the great-great-great-great-nephew of Emperor Napoleon I (who has no legitimate direct descendants) through the emperor's youngest brother, Jérôme, King of Westphalia.

Flying Fox

An emaciated baby black flying fox receives medical treatment. Flying foxes, including threatened species, have been dying or taken into care in large numbers due to a food shortage in their habitat in eastern Australia. Experts believe the cause is the prolonged dry conditions, which have reduced the availability of food such as tree blossom.

Photograph: Mandi Griffith

Scottish Highlands

Alex Grant from Edinburgh took Casper "the wee white dug" to admire the view at Loch Tarff in the Highlands of Scotland

State Opening of British Parliament

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales leave after the Queen’s speech during the State Opening of Parliament, 14 October 2019.

Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Question time today

The opposition hold up the governments talking points during Question Time today

Hunter Biden steps down

Hunter Biden has announced he would step down from the board of directors of a Chinese-backed private equity firm at the end of the month as part of a pledge not to work on behalf of any foreign-owned companies should his father win the presidency.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/hunter-biden-step-chinese-company-board-191013184508360.html?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_content=5da3a20b5153830001408ba1&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

Extinction Rebellion

A climate change activist sits between a skeleton and a taxidermied elephant ahead of a die-in protest of Extinction Rebellion at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria. October 2019

Sleepy in Montana

A female black bear sleeps with its tongue out high up in a ponderosa pine tree in the Rattlesnake neighbourhood of Missoula, Montana. The bear’s cub, not pictured, was snoozing on a nearby branch

Photograph: Tommy Martino/AP

UN/UK Brexit Negotiations

Brussels, Belgium

Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU commission president, greets the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, during a meeting of the college of EU commissioners, 10 October 2019

Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

This photo sums it up, the EU has no intention of changing its mind.

Stampeding Zebras

A herd of stampeding zebras crossing the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.
Photo credit:  Lillian Quinn

The Last Judgment is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Michaelangelo covering the whole altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City.

It is a depiction of the Second Coming of Christ and the final and eternal judgment by God of all humanity. The souls of humans rise and descend to their fates, as judged by Christ who is surrounded by prominent saints.

Altogether there are over 300 figures, with nearly all the males and angels originally shown as nudes; many were later partly covered up by painted draperies, of which some remain after recent cleaning and restoration.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Judgment_(Michelangelo)#/media/File:Michelangelo_-_Cristo_Juiz.jpg

Pinching succulents off his balcony

Requirements for Australian Citizenship

What are the requirements for Australian Citizenship from July 2018?

You must be between 18 and 60 years of age.

You must have lived continuously and legally in Australia for the past 4 years.

Be physically present in Australia and must have not been absent for more than 12 months in the last 4 years.

You must be of good character.

Permanent resident status for 1 year and have lived in Australia for at least 9 out 12 months within the year.

At home in the Amazon jungle

Villagers watch a soap opera on television in their home in the village Tekohaw.

Daily life in the remote Tembe indigenous villages in the Amazon jungle of Brazil mixes tradition and modernity.

Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/AP

Celibacy, order and obedience: Inside the Christian Brothers

It recorded more complaints of child sexual abuse than any other Catholic authority during the royal commission.

Two former Christian Brothers provide a rare glimpse inside the religious order's secretive, cloistered world.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-04/life-inside-the-christian-brothers-religious-order/11500746

Opiod poisoning cut in half

The monthly rate of codeine overdose calls has more than halved since patients have needed a doctor's prescription to buy any product that contains the opioid, according to the analysis by NSW Poisons Information Centre data, which fields 50 per cent of all poisoning calls in Australia.

China Celebrates 70 Years of Communist Rule

People watch the military parade along the perimeter security cordon established around the official ceremony in Tiananmen Square

Photograph: Héctor Retamal/AFP/Getty Images

They have no idea, and never will.

Residents watch on television as the president, Xi Jinping, reviews troops at the military parade

Photograph: Aly Song/Reuters

Ride Like a Girl

The Michelle Payne biopic Ride Like A Girl has claimed the top spot at the local box office within its first week, with reports of grown men leaving cinemas with tears in their eyes.

The film, directed by award-winning actor Rachel Griffiths, told the story of how Ballarat local Michelle Payne became the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup. Australian actor Teresa Palmer starred in the film alongside Sam Neill and Payne's real-life brother Stevie.

Soccer fan

Soccer fan

Credit: Bob Ditty

If only....

Sauna in the Dolomites

In the Dolomites, part of the Italian Alps, visitors enjoy a toasty sauna. The sauna sits higher than 9,000 feet above sea level.

Photo credit:  STEFANO ZARDINI

Deformed Skulls

Deformed skulls, typical of the Nasca and Paracas civilisations. This image is from The Last Secrets of the Nasca.

One Planet / Alain Kowalik

http://natgeotv.com/int/the-last-secrets-of-the-nasca/galleries/mysterious-lines#178564