TEACHER CUTS BOY’S HAIR, IS ARRESTED

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V I SALI A , CALIF . school teacher in central California was arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment after forcibly cutting the hair of one of her students while singing the national anthem, authorities said.

The 52-year-old science and chemistry teacher Margaret Gieszinger sang the “Star Spangled Banner” while cutting chunks of the boy’s hair and tossing them behind her.

Gieszinger grabbed at a girl’s long hair before the students made a run for it out of the classroom.

Ecuador pressures Assange to leave embassy.

Ecuador’s president has ramped up pressure on Julian Assange to leave his country’s embassy in London, saying that Britain had provided sufficient guarantees that the WikiLeaks founder won’t be extradited to face the death penalty abroad.

Lenin Moreno didn’t say he would force Assange out but said the activist’s legal team is considering its next steps. Assange has been holed up in the embassy since 2012, when he was granted asylum while facing allegations of sex crimes in Sweden that he said were a guise to extradite him to the U.S.

McConnell says there’s little chance of Senate vote on criminal justice bill.

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ON» Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has told allies there is little chance the Senate will consider a bipartisan criminal justice bill in the waning days of the year, even as his own Republicans say there is more than enough support for the legislation favored by President Donald Trump.

One McConnell adviser said the senator does not intend to have a vote on the legislation because he does not have enough time and is more focused on other things — like funding the government and confirming judges.

“He doesn’t like the bill,” Republican donor Doug Deason said of the measure.

Prisoner swap deal bolsters hopes of progress in Yemen talks.

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» Yemen’s warring S W EDEN sides agreed to a broad prisoner swap Thursday, sitting down in the same room together for the first time in years at U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Sweden aimed at halting a catastrophic war that has brought the country to the brink of famine.

The 3-year-old conflict pits the internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition, against Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who took the capital of Sanaa in 2014.

Trump picks Haley’s replacement at U.N.

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Trump has decided to nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to replace departing U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Nauert, 48, is an unorthodox choice given that she had little experience in government or foreign policy before joining the administration in 2017 after several years as an anchor and correspondent for Fox News, including on the “Fox and Friends” show watched by Trump.

Nevertheless, Nauert has gained Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s trust after being excluded from the inner circle of his predecessor, Rex Tillerson. She is also closely aligned with Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

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