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(Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Friday locked in a major endorsement from an influential couple in Iowa politics three days before the caucuses.Former Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky and her husband, former state Senator Bob Dvorsky, announced they were endorsing Warren for president in a statement to the Des Moines Register.“This woman has integrity. She has grit. And she has a plan,” Sue Dvorsky said in the statement. ”And she’s solutions-oriented.”The Dvorskys had previously endorsed Senator Kamala Harris, who dropped out of the race in December. The couple decided to publicly back Warren after a month of discussions. They received a personal call from Warren on Thursday during a break in the impeachment trial, the Des Moines Register reported.The endorsement helps Warren’s pitch as the unity candidate. The couple join a list of about 22 Iowans who had formally endorsed other presidential candidates but then backed Warren after their...

The attacks on Medicare for All echo what Sen. Elizabeth Warren faced last year as she surged ahead in national polls. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37Cz54W

A member of the board that oversees San Francisco International Airport resigned Wednesday, a day after the FBI and U.S. attorney announced charges against a senior city bureaucrat and a restaurateur alleging they offered bribes to a board member for a restaurant lease at the airport. Airport Commissioner Linda Crayton said in a statement that she is resigning due to “multiple, severe medical conditions" she's had for several years. The complaint unsealed Tuesday against San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru and longtime restaurateur Nick Bovis focuses on an aborted attempt in 2018 to bribe a female airport commissioner, who has not been named. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3aTJ5Jb

Just hours after the first person-to-person spread of the new, deadly coronavirus was confirmed in the U.S. by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, had reconvened the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee, which recommended the designation on Thursday. Speaking from Geneva, Switzerland, Tedros said the move would allow the organization increased authority in coordinating the global response to the outbreak.Tedros said the declaration should not be seen as a “vote of no confidence in China,” which he said had set a new standard for outbreak response through its commitment to limit the spread of the infection.“Over the past few weeks we have witnessed the emergence of a previously unknown pathogen,” Tedros explained. “The Chinese government is to be congratulated for the extraordinary meas...

New reports of the contents of former White House adviser John Bolton's book have surfaced hours before the Senate is scheduled to vote on whether to call witnesses in the impeachment trial of President Trump.According to the New York Times, Bolton writes in his forthcoming book that Trump directed him to assist in the pressure campaign to coerce Ukrainian officials to conduct investigations against Joe and Hunter Biden during a May meeting at which the president's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and White House counsel Pat Cipillone were present.During the meeting, Trump directed Bolton to set up a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Giuliani, who was then planning a trip to Ukraine to discuss the opening of the Biden investigation with government officials. Giuliani on Friday denied he was present at such a meeting, while Trump said Bolton's alleged account was wrong.The Times' Sunday report on Bolton's...

(Bloomberg) -- South African Airways finally secured the funding it needs to keep flying for the time being, yet there’s still a long way to go before the state-owned carrier can claim to be stable.SAA probably has enough cash to keep operating for as long as eight months after the Development Bank of Southern Africa stepped in with a 3.5 billion rand ($240 million) injection, according to Joachim Vermooten, an independent aviation consultant. The carrier is running at a loss of about 500 million rand a month and the situation may deteriorate as it scraps flights and reduces ticket prices to attract wary customers, he said.The loss-making airline was put into a local form of bankruptcy protection late last year and administrators at Johannesburg-based Matuson & Associates have little more than a month left to come up with a workable plan to turn it around. They’re working in the meantime on cutting costs, and on Thursday said they are reviewing supply contracts and canceled almost ...

Federal officials declared a public health emergency and will be restricting entry into the United States in light of the 2019 novel coronavirus that has killed at least 200 people and infected nearly 10,000 more worldwide. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters Friday that President Trump would sign a proclamation temporarily suspending entry to foreign nationals deemed to pose a transmission risk.Azar also said any U.S. citizen who traveled to China's Hubei province within the past 14 days before arriving home would be subjected two weeks of mandatory quarantine. And citizens who traveled to any other regions in China would undergo a “proactive entry health screen” and 14 days of monitored self-quarantine.“The risk for infections for Americans remains low,” Azar said, adding that these steps were “measured” reactions that would help officials deal with “unknowns” surrounding the virus.Earlier Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said ...

All eyes are on a few Republican senators who could be swing votes in the motion to call witnesses: Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37IgqEP

During his 1972 gubernatorial run, Senator Bernie Sanders told high-school students that the U.S. had committed acts in its war with Vietnam that were "almost as bad as what Hitler did."An article in the Rutland, Vermont, newspaper, The Rutland Herald, reported on the comments, made while Sanders was campaigning for governor as a member of the Liberty Union party. The article was first unearthed by the Washington Free Beacon.The North Vietnamese "are not my enemy," Sanders told a class of ninth graders in Rutland while on the campaign trail. "They're a very, very poor people. Some of them don't have shoes. They eat rice when they can get it. And they have been fighting for the freedom of their country for 25 years. They can hardly fight back."The American death toll from the Vietnam War was over 58,000. The Herald reported that students pushed back against Sanders's support for amnesty for draft evaders, saying it wouldn't be fair to the pa...

A 12-year-old girl died this week in southern Egypt after her parents brought her to a doctor who performed female genital mutilation, a criminal practice that remains widespread in the region, according to a judicial statement. The girl's death in the province of Assiut prompted Egypt's public prosecutor to order the arrests of her parents and the physician who preformed the procedure, also known as female circumcision, said the statement released late Thursday by the prosecutor's office. Since the mid-1990s, Egypt has been battling the centuries-old practice, which is misguidedly believed to control women's sexuality. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2tfnzNY

Bid to call witnesses in the Trump impeachment trial fails, setting up a likely acquittal next week. from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/36Hff7f

Saturday's newspapers mark a "moment of history" as Britain leaves the European Union after 47 years. from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/2OgfGiI

Foreign nationals who recently visited China will be barred and some US citizens will be quarantined. from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/31e8atJ

Vallow had until Thursday to turn her children over to the state of Idaho. She missed it and is believed to still be in Hawaii. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/38V69W1

The holiday was over for almost 80 Chinese visitors to Thailand. Wuhan has been under tight lockdown as Chinese authorities seek to contain further spread of the virus. The virus outbreak has attached a measure of fear and loathing to the city's name, as was demonstrated Friday when another group of Chinese tourists at the airport was asked whether they were the ones waiting for the flight to Wuhan. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2GSEadT

(Bloomberg) -- President Vladimir Putin’s pardon of an Israeli woman imprisoned in Russia on drug-smuggling charges gave a much-needed electoral gift to visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Naama Issachar, 26, was released Thursday from a prison outside of Moscow, according to Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service. She was arrested in April and sentenced in October to 7 1/2 years for carrying a small amount of hashish on a transit flight via Moscow after a backpacking trip to India.Putin pardoned Issachar late Wednesday. He had previously rebuffed Netanyahu’s appeals for her release and his about-face couldn’t have been timed better for the premier, who’s battling fraud and bribery charges ahead of March elections. The Israeli leader flew to Moscow from Washington, where he attended the unveiling of the U.S. Middle East peace plan, whose heavy tilt in Israel’s direction also favored his campaign.Netanyahu said Russian-Israeli relations were the strongest in history as he ...

A  video of CNN news anchor Don Lemon laughing hysterically as his guests mocked Donald Trump’s supporters went viral this week -- and it couldn’t have been a more effective campaign ad for the president.In the video, which was clipped from a live broadcast that aired on Saturday night, Lemon can be seen crying tears of laughter, and at one point even slamming his head on his desk, because he’s apparently so overwhelmed with joy and amusement.It all started after one guest, ex-GOP strategist Rick Wilson, joked that Trump would be too stupid to find Ukraine on a map, before calling Trump’s supporters the “credulous boomer rube demo.”Lemon laughed heartily, and so Wilson continued his mocking:“‘Donald Trump’s the smart one — and y’all elitists are dumb!’” Wilson said in a heavy, stereotypical southern accent.Then, the other guest (CNN contributor Wajahat Ali) chimed in, saying: “‘You elitists with your geography and your maps -- and your spelling!’”“‘Your math and your reading!’...

The Trump administration, while insisting the risk to Americans from coronavirus is low, nevertheless declared a public health emergency on Friday and announced the extraordinary step of barring entry to the United States of foreign nationals who have traveled to China. In addition, starting on Sunday U.S. citizens who have traveled within the past two weeks to China's Hubei Province - epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic - will be subject to a mandatory quarantine of 14 days: the incubation period of the virus, officials said. The emergency measures were unveiled by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar at a White House briefing, shortly before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local health authorities announced a seventh U.S. coronavirus case had been confirmed in Northern California. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2OwyLxl

Because of the coronavirus outbreak, my newborn son can't get his citizenship paperwork. The U.S. government's response disappoints expats like me. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2uM58RB

ROME—More than 7,000 people were quarantined on an Italian cruise ship in the Mediterranean port of Civitavecchia outside of Rome after a Chinese woman from Hong Kong came down with a fever and symptoms that mimic the coronavirus. Initial tests seemed to exclude the deadly virus, according to Italian media, but passengers were expected to be kept onboard overnight as a precaution. A second round of tests late Thursday completely excluded contagion, and Italy’s health authorities gave the green light for passengers to disembark. But as of Thursday evening, the mayor of Civitavecchia refused to authorize any passengers to get off the ship. Tourism operators, suddenly confronted with a new nightmare scenario tied to the virus, scrambled to address fears of an outbreak on a cruise ship. “We have no information, the internet inside the ship isn’t working, and we can’t get news. But above all we take meals together in the common areas, and we don’t know if someone is infected,” Liborio Iervo...

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Get Jonathan Bernstein’s newsletter every morning in your inbox. Click here to subscribe.The impeachment trial of President Donald Trump moved to questions from senators on Wednesday. It wasn’t an encouraging day.The president’s lawyers moved closer than ever to simply embracing the idea that the president can do whatever he wants. Alan Dershowitz even went so far as to argue that since presidents always think that their re-election is in the national interest, they cannot be legitimately impeached for any use of their powers of office to aid that re-election. This would have been good news for President Richard Nixon. And surprising news to pretty much everyone throughout U.S. history. It appears more and more that even if the House managers serving as the impeachment prosecutors are eventually allowed to call one or more witnesses, the trial will end after establishing the principles that the president may use the powers of the office any way he or she...

A video posted by a Chinese state-run paper shows drones hovering above rural and urban areas with a voice commanding them to don masks or go indoors. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2vFBFZY

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A military review of security for U.S. forces deployed to Africa has found “potential vulnerabilities” in multiple locations, the head of U.S. Africa Command told reporters Thursday. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/38TEPaE

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts signaled to Republican senators Wednesday that he will not say the name of the alleged Ukraine whistleblower during the question and answer session of the Senate impeachment trial.Roberts refused to read aloud a question submitted by Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) that contained the whistleblower's name. The justice is tasked with reading questions submitted by senators, and Paul's question was the first to contain the name of the alleged whistleblower."We’ve got members who, as you have already determined I think, have an interest in questions related to the whistleblower," Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R., S.D.) told Politico. "But I suspect that won’t happen. I don’t think that happens. And I guess I would hope it doesn’t."Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has also reportedly cautioned against naming the whistleblower during impeachment proceedings. Paul, however, has said the name in several media r...

As pressure mounts on senators to allow John Bolton’s testimony in President Trump’s impeachment trial, the president used Twitter to trash his former national security adviser. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/36Cnx04

After all that, it all could be over sometime on Friday.Donald Trump appears to be on a metaphorical bullet train to acquittal on charges of abusing the power of the presidency and unjustly stonewalling Congress. And one of his once most unlikely of allies, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is the conductor. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Ua7Gne

Michael Owen Jr., a veteran of the Prince George's County Police Department, was charged with murder Tuesday in the shooting death of William Green. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ObLZiG

Chilling audio of Kobe Bryant’s helicopter coming down in California was captured by a doorbell cam.  Local resident Ronna Leavitt has provided the 43-second clip to investigators in which the Sikorsky S-76B chopper can be heard flying above her housing complex in Calabasas before it crashes with a thud into the surrounding hillside and the recording falls silent. Leavitt told ABC7 that the helicopter had flown above her housing complex and performed a U-turn before it crashed into the hillside, killing Bryant and eight others, including his daughter Gianna.Meanwhile, crash investigators have said that the chopper did not have a terrain awareness and warning system that could have provided critical information to the pilot about the mountainous area.The Federal Aviation Administration recommends the equipment on new choppers, and The Wall Street Journal quoted industry estimates of retrofitting the system at between $25,000 and $40,000. The helicopter was also not equipped with a f...

The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak likely started in a Chinese wet market, where livestock and poultry are sold alongside animals like dogs and civets. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2TNcNtf

Donald Trump has raged at his ex-national security adviser John Bolton, saying the Ukraine claims made in his forthcoming new memoir are “nonsense” and declaring he would have started “World War Six” if he had not been removed from office last September as the Republican effort to discredit him continues.A new poll by Quinnipiac University has meanwhile found that 75 per cent of Americans want to hear from Mr Bolton at the president’s Senate impeachment trial as GOP majority leader Mitch McConnell is forced to admit he does not currently have the votes to stop Democrats calling new witnesses to speak out. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2OapaMd

Fox News Breaking News Alert PROGRAMMING ALERT: Sen. Rand Paul talks impeachment fight on 'The Story,' 7 pm ET 01/30/20 3:52 PM

The Mayagna group has been involved in disputes with new settlers searching for land and resources. from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/2tbeNjZ

The papers mark the day the UK leaves the EU - "Brexit day" - with a mixture of optimism and regret. from BBC News - Home https://ift.tt/2UaqUck

Sales were up 20% over the festive season in sharp contrast to weakness at other retailers. from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2Ubwifk

The Bureau of Economic Analysis released the fourth-quarter U.S. GDP reported Thursday. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2UfnQM9

ZURICH/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A humanitarian channel to bring food and medicine to Iran has started trial operations, the Swiss and U.S. governments said on Thursday, helping supply Swiss goods to the struggling population without tripping over U.S. sanctions. The Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA) seeks to ensure that Swiss-based exporters and trading companies in the food, pharmaceutical and medical sectors have a secure payment channel with a Swiss bank through which payments for their exports to Iran are guaranteed, a government statement said. Three shipments of cancer and transplant drugs have been sent to Iran through this channel and the transaction has been processed, U.S. Special Representative Brian Hook told a press briefing. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2vyeVuJ

A case of the coronavirus was confirmed at Arizona State University on Sunday, and Asian students have felt backlash ever since. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/38QOQ8K

"It's a totally upside-down world" for John Bolton, said Sen. Chris Von Hollen (D-Md.), one of the Democrats who recently called President Trump's former national security adviser a "warmonger" and now wants him to testify under oath. as the star witness in Trump's impeachment trial.On the other side, some of "Bolton's longtime Republican friends are just as abruptly tossing him to the curb, painting him as a disgruntled former adviser who just wants to sell books," writes Peter Baker at The New York Times. "Some of the same senators who allied with him, promoted his career, consulted with him on foreign affairs, and took his political action committee money are going along as he is painted as 'a tool for the radical Dems and the deep state,'" as Fox Business host and former Bolton fan Lou Dobbs said Monday night.Dobbs showed some confusing charts trying to connect Bolton, a Republican stalwart and hardline national securi...

In the six weeks since Idaho police announced that Tylee and J.J. Vallow were missing, the investigation into the siblings’ disappearance has taken more turns than one of their stepfather’s Mormon apocalypse novels.And there’s likely to be another one Thursday—the court-ordered deadline for their mother, Lori Vallow, to produce them or face a contempt of court charge and possible arrest and extradition from Hawaii.That’s where she and husband Chad Daybell have been holed up since cops started looking into the whereabouts of their children, the deaths of their previous spouses, and other bizarre incidents connected to the couple.Last weekend, police on the island of Kauai served Vallow with a court order signed by an Idaho judge, giving her five days to turn up with 17-year-old Tylee and 7-year-old J.J., who was adopted and is autistic.Ominously, police found no sign of the kids or any indication that they had been in Hawaii. Now, authorities in Kauai are waiting to see if Vallow compli...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has been foiled again.To ask questions in the Senate's impeachment trial of President Trump, senators have to write them down and submit them to Chief Justice John Roberts for him to read. That proved a problem for Paul on Wednesday when he asked a question naming an alleged whistleblower who sparked Trump's impeachment; Roberts refused to read it. So after insisting Thursday morning he'd get his questioned answered, Paul sent it in again, and received a repeat response.> Senator @RandPaul sends question to the desk during Impeachment Trial.> > Chief Justice Roberts: "The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted." pic.twitter.com/CCeB33HnRP> > -- CSPAN (@cspan) January 30, 2020Immediately after being denied, Paul exited the Senate chamber and tweeted an explanation of what he apparently wanted to ask.> My question today is about whether or not individuals who were holdovers from the Obama National Securi...

Colombia's Supreme Court on Thursday appointed Francisco Barbosa, a lawyer with close ties to President Ivan Duque, as the country's new attorney general. Barbosa, 46, previously served as a presidential adviser on human rights and international affairs. The new attorney general replaces Nestor Humberto Martinez, who resigned in May last year. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2vwjSnO

(Bloomberg) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced rare recent criticism of Russia for its conduct in Syria, saying his “patience is running out” over the ongoing bombing of opposition Islamist forces in Idlib province.“As of now, Russia is loyal to neither Astana nor Sochi” agreements, Erdogan told reporters on his way back from a visit to African countries, according to Anadolu Agency.He was referring to accords struck by the two countries in recent years to curtail fighting in northern Syria. Russia and Turkey have stepped up their cooperation in the Syrian conflict while finding themselves on opposite sides of other Middle Eastern conflicts, such as the one in Libya.“If we are loyal partners, Russia will make its position clear,” Erdogan said. “Either it will have a different process with Syria, or it will have a different process with Turkey. There’s no other way.”The comments follow reports that Syrian government forces, backed by Russia, have taken control of Ma’arrat ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the country’s government to be prepared to deal with a possible outbreak of a new virus from China. “It is a new phenomenon, and the question is how well we are prepared for this challenge,” Putin said during a meeting with several Cabinet members. Russia shares a long border with China. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2vrIZYU

When U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden went to an Iowa university to campaign this week, one thing was in short supply: students who support him. Biden, 77, joked that it can be difficult to get college students to show up before 4 p.m. and, indeed, a few more young people appeared at a later campaign event at the University of Iowa. "I'm the only one that gets a significant portion of the young vote, as well as the old vote, in-between vote, black vote, Hispanic vote, all the vote," Biden said. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/30ZyDeF

(Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make a speech to the nation at 10 p.m. on Friday -- an hour before the country leaves the European Union.After three years of political turmoil over Brexit, Johnson said finally leaving the bloc will be “a great moment for our country”. It will be a time of “hope and opportunity” and a chance to come together, he said in a Facebook broadcast released by his office.The prime minister said he will mark the moment in a way that’s “mindful” of the nation’s divisions over breaking with the bloc. His Conservative Party has spent decades divided over the U.K.’s relationship with the EU and even Johnson’s own family has been split. Last year his brother Jo quit the cabinet over the premier’s Brexit plans.“I will be celebrating in a way that I hope is respectful of the scale of the event, that does justice to the astonishing feat that Britain has accomplished, but also is mindful or everybody’s feelings about what we are doing,” he said.To c...

If you love The Daily Beast’s royal coverage, then we hope you’ll enjoy The Royalist, an all-new members-only series for Beast Inside. Become a member to get it in your inbox on Sunday.Prince Andrew’s working on it.That was the message that Buckingham Palace, in an astonishing display of arrogance, delivered to the world Tuesday morning, after a shocking and unprecedented statement by New York prosecutor Geoffrey Berman, who said the prince had offered “zero co-operation” on its investigations into Jeffrey Epstein.Inside the Dramatic Legal Bust-Up That Ended Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein’s Gross FriendshipAndrew pledged his assistance in a public statement issued as he tried to repair the damage done by his disastrous BBC interview, saying at the time: “I am willing to help any appropriate law-enforcement agency with their investigations, if required.”In the actual interview, he had failed to express regret for his friendship with Epstein, offered a variety of bizarre excuses to de...

The National Republican Senate Committee on Wednesday criticized Georgia Representative Doug Collins for entering the state's U.S. Senate race against fellow Republican Kelly Loeffler."The shortsightedness in this decision is stunning," the NRSC said in a statement. "All he has done is put two Senate seats, multiple House seats, and Georgia's 16 electoral votes in play. The NRSC stands firmly behind Sen. Kelly Loeffler and urges anyone who wants to re-elect President Trump, hold the Senate GOP majority, and stop socialism to do the same."Collins also drew fire from the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC that works to advance a Republican majority in the Senate."It’s so selfish of Doug Collins to be promoting himself when President Trump needs a unified team and Senator Loeffler is such a warrior for the President," SLF president Steven Law said in a statement. "As we've said before, Senator Loeffler is an outsider like Trump, not just ano...