The Senate has confirmed Bridget Brink as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

Ambassador to Ukraine who was forced out of her job last year by the Trump administration, is being honored by PEN America. The alleged attempt to make a foreign government investigate a political opponent led to Trump's impeachment in December on two counts by the Democratic-run House. “At a time when, for government officials, standing on principle can spell an end to a professional career, Ambassador Yovanovitch did not flinch or falter,” said Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, said in a statement. She will be among the guests Dec. 8 at PEN's annual gala, to be held online because of the coronavirus pandemic. Others receiving awards will include author and musician Patti Smith and Chinese dissident Xu Zhiyong.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin gestures as he arrives to attend a meeting of leaders of the BRICS emerging economies at the Itamaraty palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, Pool)WASHINGTON, DC For all the talk about Ukraine in the House impeachment inquiry, Russia is just off-stage and playing a dominant role in this tale of international intrigue. As has so often been the case since President Donald Trump took office, Moscow provides the mood music for the unfolding political drama. In her testimony before the House impeachment panel last week, diplomat Marie Yovanovitch suggested that the presidents actions played into Putins hands. He has cast the impeachment inquiry as a continuation of the Democrats spectacular implosion of their Russia hoax.

Published: November 15, 2019, 6:14 am Updated: November 15, 2019, 9:43 amWASHINGTON – The House Intelligence Committee holds its second public hearing in President Trump’s impeachment inquiry starting at 9 a.m. Friday. Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, will testify. You can watch NBC News coverage beginning at 9 a.m. on WDIV Local 4, or right here on ClickOnDetroit. Watch live coverage from NBC News here:

Heres whats coming up on Local 4 News at 4:Impeachment inquiryThe House Intelligence Committee holds its second public hearing in President Trumps impeachment inquiry starting at 9 a.m. Friday. Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, will testify. You can watch NBC News coverage beginning at 9 a.m. on WDIV Local 4, or right here on ClickOnDetroit.

Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Nov. 15, 2019, during the second public impeachment hearing of President Donald Trump's efforts to tie U.S. aid for Ukraine to investigations of his political opponents. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)The fired U.S. ambassador to Ukraine sounded an alarm Friday about the denigration of American diplomacy and the hollowing out of the State Department under President Donald Trump as she recounted how she became an early casualty of the behind-the-scenes negotiations that led to the impeachment inquiry. Some believe that Pompeos silence has damaged his department and the credibility of American diplomacy. She recalled the Iranian hostage crisis, the unexplained injuries to American diplomats in Cuba and the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three others in the 2011 attack in Benghazi that drew outrage from Republicans. We are people who repeatedly uproot our lives, who risk and sometimes give our lives for this country, Yovanovitch said.

Diplomats and career government officials, they're little known outside professional circles, but they're about to become household names testifying in the House impeachment inquiry . Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. "I discovered a weird combination of encouraging, confusing and ultimately alarming circumstances," Taylor testified on Oct. 22. Kent testified on Oct. 15 there were three words Trump wanted to hear from the Ukraine president: "Investigations, Biden and Clinton." Known as Masha, Yovanovitch testified on Oct. 11 that she was told that people were "looking to hurt" her.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, arrives at a closed door meeting on the ongoing House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)WASHINGTON, DC The Latest on President Donald Trump and the House impeachment inquiry (all times local):1:55 p.m.House investigators have released another transcript in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. Taylor told impeachment investigators that Trump had been holding back military aid for Ukraine until the country agreed to investigate Democrats and a company linked to Joe Biden's family. Taylor is scheduled to testify in public next week as Democrats hold the first public hearings on impeachment. __11:32 a.m.House Democrats have announced they'll hold the first public hearings next week in their impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.