A comedian tipped to take over Ukraine's presidency and his incumbent rival went head-to-head in a bitter stadium debate Friday, as campaigning reached its grand finale before a weekend vote. Several thousand spectators attended the first and only policy head-to-head of the extraordinary campaign that took place in Kiev's Olympic Stadium amid beefed-up security. "I am not a politician," said Zelensky, who spoke first.

The STAYUMBL license plate is notorious on the road and social media. Folks say the driver behind the wheel will speed up, cut people off and then slam on her brakes, sometimes causing a crash.

Three renowned mountain climbers are feared to have died after an avalanche in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.American Jess Roskelley and Austrians David Lama and Hansjorg Auer were attempting to scale a challenging route up the east face of Howse Peak in Alberta's Banff National Park, Canadian officials said.The group was last heard from on Tuesday morning, when Mr Roskelley spoke to his father, John Roskelley, himself a world-renowned climber.Search efforts began on Wednesday when the climbers failed to check in as planned, and Parks Canada said a helicopter crew saw evidence of several large-scale avalanches which had engulfed climbing equipment.Stephen Holeczi, Parks Canada’s visitor safety specialist, said there was “strong evidence” all three climbers had been killed, without going into further detail.Mr Holeczi said the avalanche that hit the group rated three on a five-point scale, roughly strong enough to destroy a small building, or uproot several trees.John Roskelley said the group had been attempting a route that was first conquered only in 2000.“It's just one of those routes where you have to have the right conditions or it turns into a nightmare. This is one of those trips where it turned into a nightmare,” he told Washington newspaper The Spokane-Review.The elder Mr Roskelley said he had climbed the 10,810-foot Howse Peak himself in the past and would travel to Canada in an attempt to help with the recovery effort.The area where the climbers were presumed to have got into trouble was “above a basin”, he said. “There must have been a lot of snow that came down and got them off the face. “When you're climbing mountains, danger is not too far away...It's terrible for my wife and I,” he said. “But it's even worse for his wife." The younger Mr Roskelley, 36, was most famous for having climbed Mount Everest in 2003 at the age of 20, then becoming the youngest American to have scaled the world’s highest peak. His father John joined him on that climb.Mr Lama, 28, was the subject of a documentary film in 2014 about his attempt to free-climb the Compressor Route on the Cerro Torre mountain in Patagonia, something never achieved before.His father was a mountain guide from Nepal, and he won numerous climbing competitions as a teenager.Mr Auer, 35, grew up near the Dolomites in Austria and was best known for completing the first ascent of the south face on Nilgiri South in Nepal.The North Face, which sponsored the trio, said in a statement that the group were “missing, and local search and rescue has assumed the worst”.“We are doing everything we can to support their families, friends and community during this difficult time,” the firm said.

Israeli forces destroyed two apartments in the occupied West Bank on Friday that housed the family of a Palestinian accused of killing an Israeli woman in February, the army said. Some clashes broke out between Palestinian residents and Israeli forces during the operation, AFP journalists reported.

The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. California's Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement, "We continue to prove in California that the rule of law not only stands for something but that people cannot act outside of it." Scores of Democrat-controlled cities and counties have adopted policies to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, making them a target for President Donald Trump.

Donald Trump attempted to fire special counsel Robert Mueller after expressing fears the probe would “end” his presidency, according to the newly released Mueller report.  The order, which came just weeks after Mr Mueller had been appointed in May 2017, was among a string of incidents of alleged obstruction of justice recounted in detail by the Mueller report.  Mr Mueller, who was tasked with looking into Russian election meddling in the 2016 campaign, makes clear in the report that he was not exonerating Mr Trump over obstruction of justice.  The 448-page report was released on Thursday. The full findings are still emerging as journalists and congressmen scour the full document.  Here are the key pieces of information that have emerged so far. Russia's carried out "systematic" election meddling but Trump campaign did not cooperate The Kremlin used the Internet Research Agency (IRA) to carry out an operation to undermine the US electoral system which began in 2014. Through the IRA, the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential in “sweeping and systematic fashion” to aid Donald Trump and harm Hillary Clinton, the report states. Tweets from an IRA account was quoted or retweeted by Trump campaign officials and surrogates, including Donald Trump Jnr, Eric Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Brad Parscale and Michael Flynn. However while Mr Mueller found that the Trump campaign “expected" to benefit from Russia's hacking, he did not establish that the Trump campaign "coordinated or conspired with the Russian government". Trump attempted to fire Mueller When Mr Trump learned of Robert Mueller's appointment he told attorney general Jeff Sessions: “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m f---ed.” Mr Trump later attempted to get Mr Mueller fired, the report states. Mr Trump called the White House counsel Don McGahn and directed him to tell Rod Rosenstein, who was overseeing the investigation, to fire the special counsel. On more than one occasion the president told the White House counsel "Mueller must go". Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel after FBI director James Comey was fired Credit: AP Mr McGahn refused, saying he would "rather resign" than trigger a "potential Saturday Night Massacre", a reference to President Richard Nixon's round of firings during the Watergate investigation. Mueller said Trump's answers were "inadequate" but decided not to subpoena him The special counsel said Mr Trump’s written answers, submitted instead of an in-person interview, were considered "inadequate”. But the special counsel decided not to subpoena the president because it would involve a long legal fight and "create a substantial delay" at a late stage in the investigation. Mueller investigated 11 episodes of potential obstruction by Trump Mr Mueller spells out in minute detail 11 episodes involving the president that raised questions when it came to potential obstruction of justice, including Mr Trump ordering the removal of Mr Mueller. Other incidents of alleged obstruction probed in detail included Mr Trump’s firing of James Comey, the FBI director, and his attempts to limit the Russia investigation's remit. The report states: “The President’s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.” Mr Mueller eventually decided not to come to a conclusion on whether Mr Trump had obstructed justice, instead handing the decision to the Justice Department, which in turn decided to bring no charge.  Mueller decided not to prosecute president's son The investigation decided not to prosecute the president's son, Donald Jnr, and other members of the campaign for campaign finance violations over their infamous Trump Tower meeting because they couldn't prove they had criminal intent. "Taking into account the high burden to establish a culpable mental state in a campaign-finance prosecution and the difficulty in establishing the required valuation, the Office decided not to pursue criminal campaign-finance charges against Trump Jr. or other campaign officials for the events culminating in the June 9 meeting," Mr Mueller states. Donald Trump Jnr Credit: Getty He added: "A prosecution would encounter difficulties proving that Campaign officials or individuals connected to the Campaign willfully violated the law." The report also notes that when journalists learned that a Russian lawyer had proposed the June meeting and offered damaging information on Hillary Clinton, Mr Trump edited Donald Jnr's response to the reporters admitting those facts. Mr Trump also repeatedly instructed officials, including communications director Hope Hicks, not to make public emails connected to the Trump Tower meeting. However, Mr Trump did not try to conceal the emails from the special counsel. Mueller looked into 'pee tape' claims from Steele dossier Mr Mueller's team looked into rumours that the Russians had taped Mr Trump watching prostitutes urinate in a Moscow hotel room in 2013. The alleged incident was mentioned in a dossier on Mr Trump compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. Mr Mueller's report states that there were tapes relating to Mr Trump's 2013 trip to Russia but it is unclear whether they refer to the alleged tapes or indeed even feature the president. Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who compiled a dossier on Donald Trump Credit: PA The report states: "On October 30, 2016, Michael Cohen received a text from Russian businessman Giorgi Rtskhiladze that said, 'Stopped flow of tapes from Russia but not sure if there’s anything else. Just so you know...' Mr Rtskhiladze said 'tapes' referred to compromising tapes of Trump rumored to be held by persons associated with the Russian real estate conglomerate Crocus Group, which had helped host the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Russia. Cohen said he spoke to Trump about the issue after receiving the texts from Rtskhiladze. Rtskhiladze said he was told the tapes were fake, but he did not communicate that to Cohen."

An electrical short-circuit most likely sparked the inferno at the Notre Dame Cathedral, a French police official told the Associated Press.

Health insurers and now hospitals have led the sector-wide plunge even as policy analyst like Veda’s Spencer Perlman argue that Medicare for All has a slim shot at becoming law. “There may be more pain to come but the worst of it may be behind us (let’s hope),” Evercore ISI equity analyst Ross Muken told clients in a note.

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — The Latest on the deadly bus crash on Portuguese island of Madeira (all times local):