Top Eight

Top eight CNS stories for today including a representative for Equatorial Guinea challenged France’s prosecution of a vice president for the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa; A federal judge said she will not derail plans to sentence Roger Stone; President Donald Trump commuted the 14-year prison sentence of disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and granted several pardons, and more.

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National

1.) In her first brush with the Roger Stone case since uproar over prison-time recommendations shook up the Justice Department, a federal judge said Tuesday she will not derail plans to sentence the longtime Trump adviser.

Roger Stone, and his wife Nydia, arrive at Federal Court for his federal trial in Washington, Friday, Nov. 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Al Drago)

2.) A voluntary group of nearly 1,100 federal judges will meet Wednesday to address Attorney General William Barr’s recent intervention in politically sensitive cases tied to President Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump's Twitter feed as seen on an Apple iPad in 2019. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

3.) In a flurry of pardons and clemencies issued Tuesday, President Trump commuted the 14-year prison sentence of disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and granted pardons to a former NFL team owner, New York police commissioner and financial fraudster Michael Milken.

4.) The D.C. Circuit gave the Trump administration a cool reception Tuesday as it attempts to quash a lawsuit by Congress in the funding fight over the president’s long-promised border wall.

5.) Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders broke away from the field of presidential candidates Tuesday with a 12-point lead in a nationwide poll of voters, solidifying his front-runner status on the Democratic Party’s 2020 ticket.

International

6.) Arguing before the highest court of the United Nations, a representative for Equatorial Guinea challenged France’s prosecution of a vice president for the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa.

7.) A Dutch appeals court on Tuesday ordered Russia to pay $50 billion to former shareholders of oil and gas giant Yukos, the latest development in a complicated, 15-year legal battle.

FILE - In this Tuesday, July 24, 2018 file photo, Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former owner of the Yukos Oil Company, poses for a photograph after being interviewed by The Associated Press in London. A Dutch appeals court on Tuesday Feb. 18, 2020, reinstated an international arbitration panel’s order to Russia to pay $50 billion compensation to shareholders in former Russian oil giant Yukos. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

8.) In a speech at an annual gathering in Munich where world leaders and foreign policy experts chew on the state of the world, a tone deaf Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tried to dispel European misgivings over the trustworthiness of American leadership and dismiss notions that the power of the West is in decline.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivers a statement on Iraq and Syria, at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2019, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

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