JAM-PACKED 48 HOURS: President Trump departs today for the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. He’ll be on the ground just 48 hours but has an ambitious schedule of meetings with eight world leaders, including a one-on-one with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump told The Washington Post earlier he might snub Putin over Russia’s seizure of three Ukrainian naval vessels, but this morning Moscow said the meeting will take place on the sidelines of the summit. A Putin aide told Russian media that two hours have been set aside Saturday morning for the two leaders to meet.

HAPPENING TODAY: The Senate Armed Services Committee has a 9:30 a.m. hearing to consider Thomas McCaffery to be assistant secretary of defense for health affairs and William Bookless to be principal deputy administrator at the National Nuclear Security Administration.

And Special Envoy to Syria James Jeffrey testifies at 2 p.m. to a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee about U.S. policy in the war-torn country.

YEMEN BACKFIRE: On Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has been seen as a reassuring force in the Trump administration but his effort to ease Senate concerns over Saudi Arabia and the Yemen war backfired Wednesday. In a major rebuke, senators voted to move ahead with a War Powers Resolution ending U.S. support for the Saudi-led war effort — despite a last-minute, closed-door appeal by Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“I must note we are seldom free to work with unblemished partners. Long-standing relationships guide but do not blind us. Saudi Arabia, due to geography and the Iranian threat, is fundamental to maintaining regional and Israeli security, and to our interest in Mideast stability,” Mattis told senators outraged by the Saudi murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

‘NO SMOKING GUN’: Later at the Pentagon, Mattis insisted there was nothing conclusive to link Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the murder. “We have no smoking gun that the crown prince was involved. Not the intelligence community or anyone else. There is no smoking gun,” Mattis told reporters.

While on Capitol Hill, Pompeo said he’s read every piece of intelligence, and “There is no direct reporting connecting the crown prince to the order to murder Jamal Khashoggi. That’s all I can say in an unclassified setting.”

POMPEO’S PLEA: Behind closed doors, the secretary of state told senators that while the murder was “heinous,” debating sanctions for Saudi Arabia on the Senate floor would be “poorly timed.

“We are on the cusp of allowing U.S. Envoy Martin Griffiths to, in December, gather the parties together and hopefully get a cease-fire in Yemen, something that we have diplomatically been striving for, for months, and we think we’re right on the cusp of that,” Pompeo said. “And so, it is the view of the administration, Secretary Mattis and myself that passing a resolution at this point undermines that. It would encourage the Houthis. It would encourage the Iranians. It would undermine the fragile agreement for everyone to go to Sweden and have this discussion.”

GRAHAM: ‘I’M PISSED’: But senators, some upset that CIA Director Gina Haspel did not also brief on the Khashoggi intelligence, voted 63-37 to advance the resolution to floor debate and a possible vote next week. “The meeting … was inadequate because the CIA was not there. So, the question for me is whether or not the CIA supports the conclusion, with a high degree of confidence, that the crown prince was complicit in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said. “I’m pissed.”

Congress still needs to pass seven appropriations bills before leaving for Christmas, but Graham said he will not help until Haspel comes to the Hill. “If that briefing is not given soon, it’s going to be hard for me to vote on any spending bill,” Graham said.

AFGHANISTAN HEATING UP: The Taliban say an attack in Kabul that killed six people yesterday was revenge for a U.S. airstrike in southern Afghanistan that killed 30 people, many of them civilians, including children. U.S. and Afghan forces were battling Taliban fighters in Helmand province when they can under heavy fire and calling in airstrikes.

“At the time of the strike, the ground force was unaware of any civilians in or around the compound; they only knew that the Taliban was using the building as a fighting position,” said operation Resolute Support in a statement “We investigate every credible allegation of error and review every mission to learn, adapt and improve.”

At the Pentagon yesterday, Defense Secretary Mattis said, “We are going to do our level best to protect the Afghan people,” adding “It would be nice if the Taliban would get aligned with the reconciliation effort and stop murdering their own people.”

SOF TROOPS ID’d: The Pentagon has identified the three special operators killed Tuesday in the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan this year. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the roadside bombing in eastern Ghazni province that killed Army Capt. Andrew Patrick Ross, 29; Army Sgt. 1st Class Eric Michael Emond, 39; and Air Force Staff Sgt. Dylan J. Elchin, 25. The two soldiers were with the 3rd Special Forces Group out of Fort Bragg and the airman was part of the 26th Special Tactics Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico.

TROOPS SEXTORTED: More than 400 U.S. military service members were duped into believing they possessed child porn and surrendered more than $560,000 in order to avoid charges as part of a plot conducted by South Carolina inmates.

Here’s how the scam worked: The inmates targeted military service members on social media and dating websites. Posing as young women they would strike up an online romantic relationship and send the troops racy pictures. Then the victim would be contacted by someone claiming to be the woman’s father, who would inform the military member they were involved with someone who was underage, and therefore the photos in their possession were child pornography.

Prisoners posing as a police officer or someone in a position of authority would demand money, on behalf of the family, in exchange for not pressing charges. The marks would then pay up, fearful their lives and careers would be ruined.

“With nothing more than smartphones and a few keystrokes, South Carolina inmates along with outside accomplices victimized hundreds of people,” Daniel Andrews, director of the Computer Crime Investigative Unit of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, announced on Wednesday.

THE RUNDOWN

NPR: Trump Is Expected To Extend U.S. Troops’ Deployment To Mexico Border Into January

Washington Post: At border, some residents wonder when troops will remove barbed wire

Bloomberg: Turkey’s F-35 Role at Risk If It Buys From Russia, Pentagon Warns

USA Today: Photos: Humanitarian crisis in Yemen

Reuters: Sickening Central American migrants in dire conditions dig in at U.S. border

Business Insider: Bernie Sanders slams US support for ‘despotic’ Saudi Arabia in Yemen and bashes Trump over Khashoggi: ‘No more! Enough death. Enough killing.’

Navy Times: Why the Navy thinks the carrier Gerald R. Ford will work after all

Defense One: The Korean War is Ending — With or Without Denuclearization

New York Times: Putin Plays Down Sea Clash with Ukraine as ‘Border Incident’

Stars and Stripes: US investigating claims of civilian deaths from airstrike in Afghanistan