Crane's Lou the elected leader to announce an investigation into his political rival former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden now anticipation is mounting over the upcoming testimony of u.s. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sohn Lund such will appear Wednesday he's the former top inauguration donor who advised his initial closed door testimony saying he had initially pieced together the implications of the president's u.k. New strategy someone has said he can't recall some of the episodes past witnesses some recounted Iran has reportedly exceeded another limit set out of the 2015 nuclear agreement N.P.R.'s Peter Kenyon says the breach was reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency the i.a.e.a. Report says Iran stockpile of heavy water used in its Eric reactor has edged past the 130 metric ton cap agreed to in the deal under the deal Iran agreed to render the reactor in operable this breach is seen as less significant than earlier violations that accelerated Iran's enrichment of uranium another nuclear fuel but Tehran has vowed to keep suspending its commitments under the deal as long as American nuclear sanctions remain in place despite the withdrawal of the us from the deal and Iran subsequent moves to abandon some of its commitments inspectors are still able to verify key aspects of Iran's nuclear program Peter Kenyon n.p.r. News Istanbul the Czech government appears to be following the lead of a number of other countries and levying a tax on big tax firms government announcing it's approved a 7 percent annual tax on giant tech companies like Google Amazon Facebook and Apple types would be imposed on the digital business revenues produced in the country by the companies could reportedly bring in more than $200000000.00 u.s. Dollars a year starting next year stocks hold on to their record gains to end the 1st trading day of the week the Dow up 31 points this is n.p.r. . Well the t.v. Star Kylie Jenner is selling a stake in her beauty business to cover girl owner Cody in a deal worth $600000000.00 go to United States buying 51 percent of Kylie cosmetics and will launch new products of its own in more countries around the world Jenner parlayed her place in the family reality show Keeping up with a car dash into a modeling career then form the company in 2015 using social media to promote the brand the products I'm told last year were sold only online but Cali cosmetics are now available at $1100.00 all to stores it's official over and lift are about to have less competition in one of their biggest markets the wide handling app Juno which operates in New York City and has struggled to gain ground it says to bigger rivals says it will discontinue service areas Rafi on has more on the troubled apps to mind as the c.e.o. Of ride sharing company get which bought the struggling Juno brand 2 years ago blame for the company's troubles on New York's new minimum wage rules which he says benefit the biggest players in the industry you know initially build itself as the driver friendly alternative to brand lift but has since faced legal challenges from drivers who accuse the company of fraud and breach of contract as he's bought Juno's 1st driver in New York and a steward with the Independent Drivers Guild says that he's sad to see drivers left with fewer options but that ultimately the company broke its promises. And abuse. Darrius Raffi on n.p.r. News Washington crude oil futures prices fell $0.67 a barrel to end the session at $57.00 o 5 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange I'm Jack Speer n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the pajama gram company creators of matching holiday pajamas for the whole family including dogs and cats with Charlie Brown Star Wars and Grange games in its fleece and flannel available at pajama gram dot com. The support for f.m. $89.00 comes from Emporium presents Tommy Emmanuel at the Tower Theater in Fresno on December 8th Emmanuel is known for his complex fingerstyle guitar playing and will be joined by guests jam and morning Nichols tickets and info available at Tower theatre Fresno dot com and the Tower Theater box office. From n.p.r. News it's All Things Considered I'm Audie Cornish and I'm Ari Shapiro President Trump has made good on a pledge to army officers accused or convicted of war crimes have been fully pardoned and a 3rd has had his rank restored ex Army Captain Clint Lawrence who had been convicted of murder received one of the pardons on Friday Lawrence appeared on Fox news this morning and thanked the president for clemency I'm so happy to be an American or part of this you know amazing country and it's got such great you know impassioned leadership these pardons had been anticipated and debated by service members and veterans N.P.R.'s Quil Lawrence covers veterans and joins us now Quil tell us the details of these 3 very different cases Laurent who you just heard from was convicted of 2nd degree murder for ordering his men to shoot down civilians in Afghanistan it's a pretty clear cut case he was sent it's in 1000 years you serve 6 Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher was accused of killing civilians as well and even killing an ISIS prisoner with his hunting knife but he was acquitted of everything but posing the crime of posing for a photo with a dead insurgent and then Army Major Matt Gholston had admitted killing an alleged Taliban top bomb maker and then hiding the body and he hadn't even been court martialed yet now some conservative media outlets had been urging a pardon for these men more broadly how is it playing out in the military among veterans well that drones are not a monolith so you can get a range of opinions on this earlier this year the organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America actually polled their membership about the pardons because these had been talked about for quite a while now and they came with with a split 50 something percent saying that they were against pardoning these alleged war criminals and 37 to 40 percent saying that they were in favor of the pardons I called up a Marine I know who served in the same operation is Major Matt ghost in Helmand province he said he said. Port's president trumps decision you can listen to Wesley Hillis He's a 3 time Afghanistan that war well it's a darn good people and make them do things that a person that just sitting in America well being is scarier barbaric or savage but not so much when you're in theater and you're dealing with those emotions and what's been happening to you in your unit and you see you know the brutal side of it so some veteran support of these pardons but you said others are not including combat vets Army vet Matt Gallagher no relation to any Gallagher served in Iraq during the surge for he told me that the whole point for him is that American troops in the heat of battle are supposed to keep their heads and not cross these lines and in particular he spoke about the case of Lieutenant Lawrence who had been command in command very long when he ordered his troops to do this listen to him anybody who want to broad to Iraq or Afghanistan were in murky situations this isn't that though this was a murder to have a new lieutenant you know on day 3 to give that order and then to have 9 of his own platoon members testify against him that to me is very telling Di I found myself thinking a lot about the soldiers that I knew that I served with that held that line that maintained their honor under very dire circumstances I've seen some criticism today that these pardons undermine the military justice system or you're hearing that from veterans you're talking to yes some are pointing out that the presidential pardon is part of our justice system these cases are sort of hit that from different angles Lawrence was convicted he's now pardon but he was pardoned of murder and Gallagher was accused of serious war crimes and acquitted in a trial where almost everyone agrees the prosecution was pretty incompetent Gholston wasn't even tried yet that the only thing they have in common really is that they were in cold blood there was no heat of battle with any of these 3 I spoke with retired Lieutenant Colonel Gary Solis who taught law at West Point in Georgetown for many years and he said he was screaming mad about these pardons he was as concerned about moral issues as. Legal ones it puts us on a far with the enemy and we can't we can't allow that in the future those who witness war crimes are going to be less apt to report them because they've seen what happens and so this is interesting because he was a Marine lawyer a Jag but before that he was a line officer in Vietnam so he's seen combat this is not an armchair declaration for him N.P.R.'s Quil Lawrence thank you thanks Ari the stage has been set for another week of violence in Hong Kong. Protesters and police clashed over the weekend one side hurled Molotov cocktails and arrows the other responded with tear gas and water cannons. As the stakes increase in nearly 6 months of demonstrations it's become harder and harder for Hong Kong families and businesses to go about their daily routines We're joined now by N.P.R.'s Julie McCarthy in Hong Kong and Julie let's just begin with the role of universities in these protests because I understand it's essentially centered on college campuses at this point well it is you know the police started raiding campuses to make arrests and that led the more radical of the protesters to start battling with them to stop those arrests and up until very recently the universities were really regarded as off limits they were they were havens where the student life was protected the students were considered protected it was their cocoon and they would protest on the weekends and dedicate the week to sleep in studying and try to get a job and that changed as their tactics changed and now they began to make havoc on the weekdays that is new and they had more time and they used it to protest and it escalated so before before long the campuses were convulsed and that's part of what you see tell me about the tension between Hong Kong residents and the Chinese military because I understand the military has been out on the streets helping clean up to. What are the concerns about their role Well there are many Hong Kong ors were taken aback by that and they quote the basic law to you on how the Pioli the People's Liberation Army is supposed to stay in their barracks and not become entangled in the local affairs but they have come up before most recently to clean up in the aftermath of a huge typhoon so there's precedent for that but an act of God is a world away from these highly charged highly political issue gripping Hong Kong right now and people said to me well they think the Pilate may be testing the waters as in the waters for a possible crackdown by Beijing it's a very live issue here in the minds of a lot of people for months the residents of Hong Kong I'm worried about the deployment of the Chinese army to shut down these protests and memories of tenement Square are very vivid here and that's the specter that their appearance really evokes but to most people sympathize with the protesters at this point or is there starting to be a backlash wanting them to stop Well you know that's an interesting question is kind of remark a remarkable similarity today how much people are against the police you know there's not much of this rebellion if you want to call it that that's not on social media and so episodes of be police beating protestors or abusing their powers something that millions of people see and it's hardened their opinions it's hardened their faith in the police by the same token the attitudes toward the violence being perpetrated by protesters is also evolving and suddenly you're hearing it slip people are grumbling about the inconveniences to their commute but they are generally horrified at the idea of protesters fighting other citizens I think you know many people are just afraid that violence is becoming the norm and they simply don't want that Julie the backdrop to this is there is supposed to be local elections coming up is that still going to happen well they may have been. Thrown in doubt the government said the events of this weekend could reduce the chance of holding that district council election next Sunday the government says that it still wants to go ahead but it's not promising they will go ahead and so like many things right now it's part of the uncertainty that's hanging over Hong Kong That's N.P.R.'s Julie McCarthy speaking to us from Hong Kong thank you for your reporting thank you we're going way up north for our next story to a ship in the middle of the Arctic Ocean the scientists aboard are there to do field work which is easier said than done as revetted Canuck reports if you spend your days on Arctic ice one of the big challenges you could face comes in the form of a neighbor. Holding on the deck of a ship moving through the frozen landscape everyone runs to the side to see a polar bear padding along in the distance this vessel is here helping set up an experiment to study the changing Arctic it's called mosaic or the multi-disciplinary drifting observatory for the Study of Arctic climate and this isn't the last time that the Mosaic team will encounter polar bears I've never had a problem with large cuddly mammals before until they started disrupting my work David Chu works for the u.s. Department of Energy and came out here to set up some atmospheric monitoring equipment we had a mama bear and that was quite frequently come visit us polar bear guard stand watch and if a bear comes into sight they alert everyone and in some situations make noise to scare it away Truda Hola is one of those guards flagons is very efficient all of us has to have a good voice we can use that raise that try to be bigger than the barracks but they also carry guns for protection but that's only as an absolute last resort another obvious challenge to working in the Arctic is the cold temperatures in this area can get as low as negative 50 degrees Fahrenheit but working even in the single digits for hours at a time can take a toll it's not just unpleasant it can affect your thinking we could. As everybody gets it you just you're. Right. In the Arctic for decades he says you do as much prep work as you can before you go out but you can't escape having to use your brain on the ice you still have to think through some things that often takes like 3 times longer than it would be in the cozy office then there's the fact that if anything goes wrong and something always does you can just run to a hardware store the scientist pack loads of extra tools and spare parts that they can prepare for everything you cannot predict what's going to get you right it's going to be something you didn't anticipate Chris Cox is an atmospheric scientist and out in the field his team had to deal with a finicky panel that was supposed to help get power to their equipment he just found a way to rewire around it in an environment like this it's almost easier to come up with those solutions and I think the reason is that you don't have choices when I asked these researchers what got them through the challenges of an arctic workday 3 big themes emerged one prepare to don't panic and 3 Stay Positive really good advice for any job on or off the ice for n.p.r. 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And from c. 3 dot a i c 3 dot AI's software enables organizations to use artificial intelligence at enterprise scale solving previously unsolvable business problems learn more at c 3 dot a I this is All Things Considered from n.p.r. News I'm Ari Shapiro And I'm Audie Cornish a disaster is unfolding in Venice the centuries old city built atop small islands and laced with canals is flooded 3 record high tides coming in short order have submerged St Mark's Square and damaged churches homes and businesses N.P.R.'s Sylvia Poggioli reports now Italy is rallying to say Venice and volunteers are arriving to help come clean with a pool of water as we approach the book store. There which is appropriately named high water this eccentric bookstore is a Venice landmark because of the constant danger of floods its books have always been displayed inside bathtubs plastic bins and even full sized. But last Tuesday the books were not high enough for the worst tide in more than 50 years reaching 6 feet one inch the shop's fire escape opens onto a canal where a gondola now floats above the height of the store's pavement which is still under several inches of water older Diana has been assessing the damage and trying to salvage what she can but he was ready for that but at the end the situation I think we all. Pretty lacking because a lot of people came here and then take care of and they helped them out a lot the Italian Culture Ministry has sent experts to assess the damage in the flooded crypt of St Mark's Basilica where mosaic pavements and frescoes were submerged by salt water but in many of the cities less known cultural institutes it's volunteers who are doing the salvage work. The. Foundation is located in 800 centuries Venetian So an elegant room with no glass chandelier is now a rescue center for precious books from the foundations seriously damaged library Anna Dumas is an American Ph d. Student doing research here on 1000 then 20th century textiles today she's one of several volunteers taking books that are with salt water and we are page by page putting paper towels in between of agents to soak up the water and hopefully safer but it's working at the next table is Venetian. I'm actually a criminal lawyer I should be a war criminal but I haven't that was this place you and I came here to study for a long time I felt like I had to do but given his profession I asked Bill de about Moses' the huge engineering project of movable floodgates to hold back the tide from flooding Venice most it's still unfinished after 16 years and $5500000000.00 in public funds. Goes Public opinion that bel