WASHINGTON—Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch told House lawmakers Friday that the White House undermined her efforts to pursue anti-corruption policies. House Democrats have said her ouster illustrates how President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his allies sidelined experienced diplomats in a quest to get Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who had business dealings in the country.

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump’s lawyers argue that presidential immunity should keep a New York grand jury from seizing his tax returns. They asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene on Thursday. If the court agrees, it will likely hear arguments in January.

A commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is resigning in protest over what she says are attempts to muzzle the panel.

Commissioner Kristina Arriaga cited a legislative attempt to “undermine the independence of the commissioners” to the point “where I can no longer be an effective advocate for religious freedom,” she told me.

While USCIRF commissioners have at times disagreed on various religious freedom issues, a commissioner resigning over being unable to perform her role effectively is unprecedented.

WASHINGTON—For several months in 2018, U.S. sanctions gutted the value of Turkish currency as Turkish authorities held American Pastor Andrew Brunson on phony charges. The United States lifted the sanctions once Turkey released Brunson, WORLD’s 2018 Daniel of the Year, in October of that year, proving U.S. economic pressure can be an effective tool in getting countries to uphold human rights. Now the U.S.

WASHINGTON—With the first public impeachment hearing completed, House Democrats and Republicans are fighting to win over a polarized American public to their interpretation of events.

WASHINGTON—The United States will repatriate one of its citizens who is suspected of fighting for Islamic State (ISIS), the Turkish Interior Ministry said Thursday. The man, identified by Turkish media as 39-year-old Mohammed Darwis B., got stuck in a militarized border zone when Turkey deported him and Greece refused to let him enter.

WASHINGTON—As the U.S. House of Representatives’ televised impeachment hearings kicked off Wednesday morning, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., called them “nothing less than an impeachment process in search of a crime.” Acting U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent are the first witnesses to testify in front of TV cameras. Both have already answered questions behind closed doors.