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U.S. diplomat Gordon Sondland has told two different stories to lawmakers leading the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, he is certain to face sharp questions about which one is right.

A “phase one” trade deal between the United States and China was supposed to be a limited agreement that would allow leaders from both countries to claim an easy victory while soothing financial markets. But it may morph into something bigger if U.S. President Donald Trump agrees to Beijing’s demands to roll back existing tariffs on Chinese goods, people familiar with the talks say.

Democratic White House contender Pete Buttigieg, who has climbed into the lead in recent polls in Iowa, will get his turn in the spotlight on Wednesday when 10 of the top candidates for the party’s presidential nomination meet in a debate in Atlanta. The fifth debate will also likely feature another clash over the best approach to expand health insurance coverage.

An ammunition dealer who acknowledged selling hundreds of incendiary tracer rounds to the gunman who killed nearly 60 people at a Las Vegas music festival two years ago pleaded guilty on Tuesday to manufacturing bullets without a license. Douglas Haig became the first and only person arrested and charged in connection with the massacre.

Hong Kong Protests

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation on Tuesday aimed at protecting human rights in Hong Kong amid a crackdown on a pro-democracy protest movement, drawing condemnation from Beijing. “The people of Hong Kong see what’s coming - they see the steady effort to erode the autonomy and their freedoms,” Republican Senator Marco Rubio said at the start of the debate.

Some anti-government protesters trapped inside a Hong Kong university on Wednesday tried to flee through the sewers, where one student said she saw snakes, but firefighters prevented the escape by blocking a trapdoor into the system. Reuters witnesses said fewer than 100 protesters remained inside the Polytechnic University, ring-fenced by riot police and barricades.

A former employee of Britain’s consulate in Hong Kong said Chinese secret police beat him, deprived him of sleep and shackled him in an attempt to force him to give information about activists leading pro-democracy protests. “I was hung (handcuffed and shackled) on a steep X-Cross doing a spread-eagled pose for hours, Simon Cheng said in a post on Facebook.

‘Fire magicians’ and medieval weaponry - a Hong Kong university under siege. During the past week, Reuters journalists have covered the violent confrontations at four Hong Kong universities, including the Polytechnic, as an increasingly militant protest movement suddenly shifted tactics. Read their in-depth report here.