A very sharp cold front sent damaging winds and snow through areas near Chicago, Illinois.

"There were numerous reports of high winds and wind damage in and near Chicago Saturday afternoon between about 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. CDT," AccuWeather Meteorologist Frank Strait said.

Strait said 60-mph winds were reported at Midway Airport and in Romeoville. There was a gust to 61 mph in Rockford and at O’Hare International Airport. A 63-mph gust was reported in Michigan City, Indiana. The strongest wind reported was 65 mph in Somonauk, Illinois, Strait said.

There were many reports of downed trees or large tree branches. Some homes had siding damage.

The Colts and Bills played Sunday afternoon at Lucas Oil Stadium, where the roof was closed and everyone stayed dry.

What a difference a season makes.

Last time these two teams played, it was December 2017, and it was snowing. And snowing some more. And snowing some more.

Univision journalist Francisco Santa Anna was reporting from the bridge separating Guatemala and Mexico, revealing that people from countries other than Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico had jumped into the 7,000+ caravan.

“Yesterday when we were traveling through Guatemala, we noticed people from El Salvador and even people from Bangladesh,” he said. “Can you imagine what they had to do to get here?”

“They infiltrated themselves in this caravan and tried to cross with the crowd,” he admitted. “That would have benefited them greatly.”

Bangladesh may not be technically located in the Middle East, but the provenance of some of these migrants is a cause for concern. Why? Terrorism.

The German government plans to give in to Donald Trump’s criticism about dependence on Russia’s fuel and pour millions into a liquefied natural gas terminal. This is expected to diversify Germany’s energy import, open it up to US gas and possibly avert hostile moves against the Nord Stream 2, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has told the country’s lawmakers that the Cabinet is set to co-fund the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipping terminal over breakfast this month. The $576 million project would be located in northern Germany, the US business outlet reports, citing the sources familiar with the meeting.

The drumbeat of incriminating leaks from the Turkish investigation into the killing of Jamal Khashoggi has continued apace Monday afternoon. And in the latest salacious piece of evidence that appears to support the theory that Khashoggi's murder was a premeditated act ordered by a senior official in his government, if not the Crown Prince himself, a Turkish TV station has aired footage showing employees from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul burning documents on Oct. 3, the day after Khashoggi disappeared inside the consulate and was never seen again.

Per Middle East Eye, Turkish television channel A Haber released on Monday a video seemingly filmed by a small drone of consulate employees throwing documents into a fire outside of the consulate building.

US President Donald Trump threatned Russia and China that Washington intends to build up its nuclear arsenal until “people come to their senses.”
The president said his words were directed towards Moscow and Beijing, as he prepared to unilaterally leave the Intermediate Nuclear Forces in Europe (INF) treaty. The US president implied China should be part of any new nuclear arms control treaty.

“Russia has not adhered to the agreement,” neither in form or in spirit, Trump told reporters outside the White House on Monday, before departing for a campaign rally in Texas.

Until people come to their senses, we will build it up

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is reportedly considering entering a likely crowded field of Democratic candidates for the party's 2020 presidential nomination.

Politico reports that Gabbard adviser Rania Batrice is reaching out to speechwriters and digital campaign staff with no explicit mention of a 2020 run, but with such a time frame heavily implied.

No staffing additions have been made yet, but several potential staffers have been contacted, according to the report.

Batrice reportedly did not dispute that the progressive Hawaii lawmaker is mulling a 2020 bid, but cautioned that Gabbard is currently focused on her reelection campaign.

On Saturday, a 38-year-old woman was sexually assaulted by a group of migrants in Calais. The victim was hospitalised.

Saturday night, around midnight, a woman walking her dog, in the Tourmaniantz Avenue, witnessed a group of migrants raping a woman.

She immediately went home to get her husband and when they went back to the scene of the incident, they discovered the victim, lying on the ground.

London has become a hub for global Saudi public relations and media influence campaigns, with British firms earning millions of pounds from efforts to improve the image of the kingdom and its regional allies in recent years, a Guardian investigation has found.

The reputation of Saudi Arabia, always controversial due to its record on human rights and involvement in the ongoing Yemeni war, has taken a battering in the past fortnight following the apparent murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

On Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that US airstrikes against the town of Souseh killed at least 32 civilians, many of them women and children. There were also reports of US strikes along the Iraqi side of the nearby border.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry reported 62 civilians killed in the strikes, though the US is now disputing this, claiming that not only were no civilians killed and none were targeted, but that the US airstrikes were “valid.”

The official Pentagon claim is that ISIS had used the moque as a “headquarters” and the mosque was a “valid military target.” They said they would look into all “credible allegations of civilian casualties.”

Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo has made it increasingly difficult for health officials who are attempting to contain an outbreak of Ebola. The DRC’s Ministry of Health reported that rebels in the Rwenzori neighborhood of Beni killed at least 15 people and kidnapped another dozen over the weekend.

The violence is all but halting efforts to contain the Ebola virus, making its spread much more likely, according to a report by Axios. So far, the DRC has reported at least 202 confirmed cases of Ebola since this outbreak started August 1 of this year. This is the 10th major incidence of violence near the outbreak epicenter in Beni, according to Peter Salama, a World Health Organization (WHO) emergencies chief, in a post made public on the social media platform Twitter.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Moscow would deploy new Avangard hypersonic glider warheads in the "coming months," adding that Russia's hypersonic program is the most advanced in the world, according to a new report from the Financial Times.

"We are improving our attack systems in response to the construction of a missile defense system by the United States. Some of them are already in service, and some will be supplied in the near future," said Putin, who was speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi Thursday, adding that Moscow's hypersonic weapons program was well ahead of China and the US.

"The Avangard system [will be deployed] in the next few months."

Thousands of Trump supporters, some of whom had waited for nearly 24 hours, gleefully ran inside the Toyota Center in Houston on Monday afternoon, leaving behind camping chairs and sleeping bags, for a rally with the president that was still hours away.

For many it was their first time seeing the president in person who has campaigned in the city just once before and only six times in Texas including today.

'We love, love, love our president. He's saving America,' said one Texan, Maryanne Howard, who slept outside of the Houston rally on Sunday.

Howard was among arrived hours before the rally start time when Trump campaigned in Woodlands in 2016 but said she didn't make it in. 'So I knew you had to get in early,' she told DailyMail.com.

After more than two years of mania about Russia stealing the 2016 election for Trump and demonization of anyone who questioned it, an embarrassing end may soon be near for the Russia-gaters...

In a new article titled “Mueller report PSA: Prepare for disappointment“, Politico cites information provided by defense attorneys and “more than 15 former government officials with investigation experience spanning Watergate to the 2016 election case” to warn everyone who’s been lighting candles at their Saint Mueller altars that their hopes of Trump being removed from office are about to be dashed to the floor.

“While [Mueller is] under no deadline to complete his work, several sources tracking the investigation say the special counsel and his team appear eager to wrap up,” Politico reports.

The Saudi version of the disappearance and murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi seems to change every day or so. The latest is the Saudi government claim that the opposition journalist was killed in a “botched interrogation” at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Or was it a fist-fight? What is laughable is that the Saudi king has placed Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, a prime suspect, in charge of the investigation of Khashoggi’s murder!

Though the official story keeps changing, what is unlikely to change is Washington’s continued relationship with Saudi Arabia. It is a partnership that is in no way beneficial to Americans or the US national interest.

The migrant caravan that began initially as just a group of 200 Hondurans hoping to claim asylum in the U.S. has burgeoned to over 7,000 individuals. As it marches north toward the United States, the caravan continues to recruit more prospective invaders. The initial group claims to be fleeing war and violence, and in doing so, are ignoring every other country in Latin America (including countries they’re passing through) they could flee too.

While they may be playing the role of the refugee, this caravan is no different from the last. They’re economic migrants, not refugees. And if we’re morally obligated to take in 7,000 people “fleeing poverty,” why not the entire nation of Honduras, with its population of nearly 10 million?

The Turkish military has given the jihadist rebels inside the Idlib buffer zone one last warning to leave the designated demilitarized area, Syria’s Al-Watan newspaper reported this morning.

Citing a source from the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front, Al-Watan reported that Ankara has repeatedly sent warnings to the jihadist groups about remaining inside the demilitarized zone that is located inside the Idlib, Aleppo, Latakia, and Hama provinces.

The Al-Watan report said that if the jihadist rebels refuse to leave the buffer zone, Turkey will allow the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Russian Air Force to resume their operations against them in northwestern Syria.

Who’s financing and organizing this hostile invasion of America? Guatemala’s President is quoted in their largest newspaper as saying at least 100 ISIS members are included in the caravan! What’s the big attraction? How about free money (welfare), free medical care, free, housing, free education, free food (SNAP) etc. It smells suspiciously of George Soros and Hillary Clinton. Where are these people getting their food and water on the way here? Who organized them? The Democrats certainly need more voters. Is there a limit to how many immigrants America can absorb without creating chaos, and destroying the American culture? Do Americans have a right to a nation and a culture?

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) sent a large number of reinforcements to the eastern countryside of the Deir Ezzor Governorate this morning, a source told Al-Masdar News.

According to the source, the Syrian Democratic Forces sent reinforcements to the strategic Konoko Oil Field, which is located along the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.

The source did not specify why the SDF sent reinforcements to the Konoko Oil Field; however, it is likely due to the proximity of this site to the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) lines.

The Syrian security forces recovered a number of Roman era artifacts that were stolen by the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) from the historical city of Palmyra in eastern Homs.

According to a military report from the Homs province, the Syrian forces uncovered this large cache of artifacts while combing through a building that was site of the Islamic State’s old headquarters inside the city of Palmyra.

Oil prices are down a bit, but are still close to multi-year highs. That should leave the shale industry flush with cash. However, a long list of U.S. shale companies are still struggling to turn a profit.

A new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and the Sightline Institute detail the “alarming volumes of red ink” within the shale industry.

“Even after two and a half years of rising oil prices and growing expectations for improved financial results, a review of 33 publicly traded oil and gas fracking companies shows the companies posting negative free cash flows through June,” the report’s authors write. The 33 small and medium-sized drillers posted a combined $3.9 billion in negative cash flow in the first half of 2018.

Initial relief over a favorable Moody's downgrade of Italy, which pushed the rating just one notch above junk but kept the outlook stable (which in turn prompted the following sarcastic remark from Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid "If there’s one thing the outlook isn’t for Italy at the moment it’s stable but rating agencies are unlikely to want to create a vicious circle") faded after Italy’s populist government promised it won’t let its budget deficit widen further than currently planned and called for dialogue with the European Union to address their differences.

In its letter response to the European Commission published Monday and seen by Bloomberg, Italy acknowledged Europe's concerns about the budget, but refused to change the proposed plan.

On October 20th, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Russian Aerospace Defense Forces have carried out more than 40,000 flights, including 21,000 nighttime ones over the course of the operation in Syria. These have resulted in approximately 122,000 strikes on terrorist facilities. Furthermore, about 87,500 terrorists were eliminated and over 1,411 settlements were liberated as a result of the operations.

More than 2,500 settlements have joined the reconciliation process as a result of the Russian reconciliation center’s efforts. According to Shoigu special attention is being paid to resolving humanitarian issues.

On the same day, after long negotiations and as a result of the siege on al-Safa, Syrian authorities freed six hostages, all of whom were abducted by ISIS during an attack in July. The governor the Sweida region Amer al-Ashi said that numerous terrorists were killed in the operation that lasted more than 83 days, following the ISIS attack.

Elon Musk has announced that the Boring Company will open a stretch of tunnel under Los Angeles in just 11 weeks.

The Boring Company founder made the announcement via Twitter and earmarked December 10 for the grand unveiling.

Boring has been working on developing a series of rapid-transit tunnels that can transport people on 'skates' at up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h).

The stretch of tunnel that will be opened to the public was previously dubbed a 'test tunnel' and sits beneath the suburb of Hawthorne, south of downtown LA.

Two weeks.

That’s how long we have until the country goes to vote in the so-called midterm elections. Congressional Republicans are looking to hold their majorities in Congress, while Democrats are hoping to win one, if not both, of the chambers.

So far, Democrats have had the advantage in all general ballot polls. According to the latest RealClearPolitics aggregation of generic ballot polling, Democrats hold the advantage across the board, ranging from +1 to +10.

A new poll reveals a surprising twist

President Trump knows Democrats smell blood and are out revving up the base to boost turnout. That’s why he’s been barnstorming the country, holding rally after rally, particularly in red states where a Democrat is up for reelection. And it may be working. While Democrats hold a lead in the polls, Republicans are beginning to see their chances of holding Congress increase ever so slightly.