November marks 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Wall’s demise brought an end to a divided  Berlin — and symbolized the eventual liberation of East Germany, and later the rest of Eastern Europe, from Soviet communist rule. Yet as Charles Maynes reports, while the Wall is long gone, it still casts a shadow over German life.   …

The government’s October jobs report being released Friday will help show whether hiring remains a key source of strength for a U.S. economy that’s been weakened by trade wars and a global slowdown. It will also provide a glimpse of whatever short-term damage the now-settled strike against General Motors inflicted on the economy. Analysts have forecast that employers added 90,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate ticked up from 3.5% to 3.6%, still near a 50-year low, according to a survey of forecasts by data provider FactSet. The predicted gain is an artificially low one because of the GM strike. The strike is thought to have caused roughly 60,000 idled workers to be temporarily counted as unemployed during October, meaning that the expected job gain would otherwise be far higher, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody Analytics. Hiring has slowed this past year, though it remains high enough to keep the unemployment rate from rising in an otherwise mostly lackluster economy. On Wednesday, the government estimated that the economy grew in the July-October quarter at a modest 1.9% annual rate. Employers cautious Surveys suggest that employers have turned cautious in large part because of heightened uncertainties caused …

U.S. President Donald Trump says he is no longer a New York resident. The New York Times first reported the story, and Trump confirmed it in a series of Tweets late Thursday, saying he has decided to make Palm Beach, Florida, his permanent residence. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House, is the place I have come to love and will stay for, hopefully, another 5 years as we MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, but my family and I will be making Palm Beach, Florida, our Permanent Residence. I cherish New York, and the people of….. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 1, 2019 “… despite the fact that I pay millions of dollars in city, state and local taxes each year,” the president tweeted, “I have been treated very badly by the political leaders of both New York city and state…” It is not clear how much Trump has paid in New York taxes, since he refuses to release his tax information. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo did not seem upset about Trump’s change of address. “Good riddance,” the governor tweeted. “It’s not like Mr. Trump paid taxes here anyway. He’s all yours, Florida.” Good riddance. It’s not like @realDonaldTrump paid …

Some Islamic State supporters are starting to rally around the terror group’s new leader, using social media to pledge their allegiance to a man whose true identity may not be known for some time. IS announced the selection of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi as its new leader Thursday in an audio message issued by its Amaq news agency and read by the group’s new spokesman. “He is a flag of the flags of jihad, and a scholar of its scholars, and an emir of the emirs of war,” the voice said, according to a translation by SITE Intelligence, which monitors jihadist communications. Qurashi “has attacked the protector of the Cross America, and made it taste bad,” the voice added. The announcement, which also confirmed the deaths of IS’s self-declared caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and his spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, caused what some analysts described as a ripple of excitement on social media and online messaging boards frequented by IS supporters. Here it begins Positive identification information on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is displayed as U.S. Central Command Commander Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie speaks, Oct. 30, 2019, at a joint press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington. Until now, IS officials had …

The last 24 hours have been a roller coaster for residents of Washington, D.C. Washington’s baseball team, the Nationals, won its first-ever World Series title, while up on Capitol Hill the impeachment inquiry entered in its next phase with a House vote. Saqib Ul Islam took to the Washington streets to find out what’s on people’s minds and how all of this news is affecting Washington and its residents. …

The Trump administration is keeping alive one of the last remaining components of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal by extending sanctions waivers that allow foreign companies to work with Iran’s civilian nuclear program without U.S. penalties. The waivers had been due to expire Tuesday but were extended by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for another 90 days. The extensions were not announced until Thursday. Pompeo has been a champion of President Donald Trump’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said the move “will help preserve oversight of Iran’s civil nuclear program, reduce proliferation risks, constrain Iran’s ability to shorten its `breakout time’ to a nuclear weapon, and prevent the regime from reconstituting sites for proliferation-sensitive purposes.” Pompeo also announced new sanctions on Iran’s construction sector, which he determines to be under the control of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The IRGC was designated earlier this year as a “foreign terrorist organization.” Trump withdrew last year from the nuclear deal and has steadily ramped up sanctions on Iran that had been eased under the agreement. But the so-called “civilian nuclear cooperation” waivers will permit European, Russian and Chinese companies to continue to work at Iranian civilian nuclear …

As hot, dry Santa Ana winds whipped up wildfires in Southern California this week, 300 unlikely heroes were being credited with helping save the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. Three hundred goats, that is. That’s because in May, 300 goats were brought to the library to eat all the brush around the complex. “We actually worked with the Ventura County Fire Department in May and they bring out hundreds of goats to our property,” Melissa Giller, a spokeswoman for the library, told ABC. “The goats eat all of the brush around the entire property, creating a fire perimeter. “The firefighters on the property said that the fire break really helped them, because as the fire was coming up that one hill, all the brush has been cleared, basically,” she said. Goats graze on a hillside as part of fire prevention efforts, in South Pasadena, California, Sept. 26, 2019. The caprine contractors are part of an 800-head herd from 805 Goats, a Southern California company that offers a “sustainable, ecologically friendly” way to reduce fire danger and manage lands. Scott Morris, the owner, said he charges $1,000 per acre of land to allow the goats to graze. Vincent van …

TC Energy’s Keystone pipeline has leaked an estimated 383,000 gallons (1.4 million liters) of oil in northeastern North Dakota, marking the second significant spill in two years along the line that carries Canadian tar sands oil through seven states, regulators said Thursday. Crews on Tuesday shut down the pipeline after the leak was discovered, said Karl Rockeman, North Dakota’s water quality division director. It remained closed Thursday. The Calgary, Alberta-based company formerly known as TransCanada said in a statement that the leak affected about 22,500 square feet (2090 sq. meters) of land near Edinburg, in Walsh County. The company and regulators said the cause was being investigated. “Our emergency response team contained the impacted area and oil has not migrated beyond the immediately affected area,” the company said in a statement. TC Energy said the area affected by the spill is less than the size of a football field and that the amount of oil released — 9,120 barrels — would approximately half fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.   North Dakota regulators were notified late Tuesday of the leak. Rockeman said some wetlands were affected, but not any sources of drinking water. Regulators have been at the site since Wednesday …