China virus toll passes 250 as travel curbs tightened

The death toll from China's coronavirus outbreak has surpassed 250, the government said Saturday, as foreign nations tightened restrictions on travellers from China in response to the rapid spread of the illness. At least 258 people have died and more than 11,000 people have been infected in China by the new coronavirus, according to new figures from officials in hard-hit Hubei province. The top Communist Party official in Wuhan, the central city of 11 million people where the virus first emerged in December, on Friday expressed "remorse" because local authorities acted too slowly.

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US hits Iran with new sanctions, keeps some waivers in place

The Trump administration said Thursday that it will continue — at least for now — its policy of not sanctioning foreign companies that work with Iran's civilian nuclear program. Brian Hook, U.S. envoy to Iran, said the U.S. would renew for 60 days sanctions waivers that permit Russian, European and Chinese companies to continue to work on Iran's civilian nuclear facilities without running afoul of U.S. sanctions.

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#ArrestRandPaul trends on Twitter after he walks out over impeachment question

Along with ArrestRandPaul, dershowitzlogicm wewantwitnessess and TrumpsDNA were trending nationally.

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The U.S. Interior Department Grounds All of Its Chinese-Made Drones

If it was made in China—or uses Chinese parts—it ain't flying.

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DNC members discuss rules change to stop Sanders at convention

The talks reveal rising anxiety over the Vermont senator's momentum on the eve of voting.

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More than 6,000 people are trapped on a cruise ship in Italy after a woman was suspected of having the coronavirus

Passengers of a Costa Cruises cruise ship can't disembark. Two passengers, one of whom was experiencing coronavirus symptoms, were quarantined.

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Delta, American, and United just suspended all China flights, a red flag as the unprecedented coronavirus wreaks havoc on the airline industry

Demand has plummeted because of the coronavirus outbreak, putting airline profits and China's economy at risk.

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Indictment, a plan and a pardon: Israeli PM has a wild week

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left the White House after the unveiling of President Donald Trump’s Mideast plan, which hugely favors Israel, he and his entourage could barely contain their glee as they boasted of realizing their dream of swiftly annexing large swaths of the West Bank. Netanyahu's sojourn to Moscow, to bring home an Israeli backpacker jailed on drug charges that the prime minister had convinced Russia to pardon, capped a roller-coaster five-day journey during which he was also formally indicted on corruption charges.

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Iranian factory makes U.S. and Israeli flags to burn

Business is booming at Iran's largest flag factory which makes U.S., British and Israeli flags for Iranian protesters to burn. The factory produces about 2,000 U.S. and Israeli flags a month in its busiest periods, and more than 1.5 million square feet of flags a year. Tensions between the United States and Iran have reached the highest level in decades after top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3, prompting Iran to retaliate with a missile attack against a U.S. base in Iraq days later.

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75,000 in Wuhan infected with coronavirus: study estimates

More than 75,000 people -- ten times the official tally of confirmed cases -- have been infected with the coronavirus in Wuhan, ground zero of a global health emergency, according to research published Friday. "We estimate that 75,815 individuals have been infected in Wuhan as of January 25, 2020," a team led by Gabriel Leung from the University of Hong Kong reported in The Lancet. As of January 31, the Chinese government said the number of confirmed cases had risen above 9,700 for all of China, including 213 deaths.

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Coronavirus influencers are a thing now. You knew it would happen.

Some social-media influencers are sharing facts about coronavirus while posing in surgical masks and trendy outfits.

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If everyone except for Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden dropped out of the 2020 race right now, Democrats would still be hopelessly split

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are the two frontrunners in the Democratic presidential race. So who would win if no one else was crowding them out?

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North Korea says it has intensified efforts to block virus

North Korea is intensifying efforts to prevent the spread of a new virus from China into the isolated country by blocking tourists, reducing flights and mobilizing more screening efforts, a health official said Thursday. It has sickened thousands, most of them China, but South Korea has reported six cases.

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Palestinians face uphill battle against Trump's Middle East plan

When Palestinian leaders learned that the release of U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East plan was imminent, they swiftly announced a "day of rage" - a gritty, oft-used call for resistance against Israel. As in past decades, critics are branding the Palestinians as naysayers, continually rejecting offers of a settlement in the hope, so far futile, of something better to come. Contrary to expectations, Trump did propose a "two-state" solution for the conflict - but with strict conditions that would leave any future Palestinian state under near-complete Israeli security control.

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Lori Vallow didn't meet the Thursday deadline to turn her kids over to the state. Their grandma believes the 'monster' will face consequences.

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.

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Warren Gets Endorsement From Prominent Iowa Political Couple

(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 initial picks dropped out.Endorsements can carry more weight in Iowa than in other states because the caucus system gives an edge to the candidate with the strongest local connections. The Dvorskys were early backers of Barack Obama in 2007, and Sue Dvorsky served as Hillary Clinton’s women’s engagement director for Iowa in 2016.Warren, who was the front-runner in Iowa in the fall, is now locked in a tight race with other top-tier candidates for the winning ticket out of Iowa. In a Monmouth University poll released Wednesday, Warren was fourth with support from 15% of Democrats, trailing Sanders who had 23%, Joe Biden with 21% and Pete Buttigieg with 15%.(Disclaimer: Michael Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic nomination for president. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)To contact the reporter on this story: Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou in Des Moines at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, Magan CraneFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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San Francisco airport official resigns in wake of FBI report

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.

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WHO Calls Coronavirus ‘Emergency’ as Person-to-Person Spread Confirmed in U.S.

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 measures it has taken to contain the outbreak despite the social and economic impact it is having.”“WHO continues to have confidence in China’s capacity to control the outbreak,” he added. “Our greatest concern is the virus’s potential to spread to countries with weaker public health systems."Meanwhile, the new case in the U.S. involved the spouse of a previously identified patient in Chicago, the CDC said.“We understand that this may be concerning, but based on what we know now, we still believe the immediate risk to the American public is low,” Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, told reporters.Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said the spread “was among two people who were in close contact for an extended period of time.” In other words, the new patient may have only been able to contract the virus because he had sustained, prolonged exposure to his wife. That woman was diagnosed as the second confirmed patient in the United States on Jan. 21 after traveling to Wuhan, China, where the virus originated, officials said. The newer patient does have some underlying medical conditions, is in the hospital with his wife, and is about the same age (she is in her 60s), according to the agency.Messonnier noted on Thursday that the CDC was working to prevent “community transmission from happening here” and “trying to strike a balance in our response right now” to handle the outbreak while not sparking panic stateside.She added that the agency did not recommend the use of face masks to the general public, even in Chicago.At last count, there were a total of 165 “patients under investigation” for the virus in 36 states in the U.S., and 68 of those cases had come back negative. Only six people have tested positive for the virus. There were 21 people in Chicago being tested for possible infection, with those most at risk being older citizens or anyone with an underlying health condition, according to Messonnier. The CDC expects more cases of the virus to be confirmed in the U.S., including transmissions from person-to-person, officials said.7,000 People Trapped on Mediterranean Cruise in Italy Over Suspected Coronavirus CaseRedfield and other federal health officials also briefed lawmakers during a closed-door hearing on Thursday. “If this does turn into some kind of pandemic situation here in the U.S.—which we hope it will not—I am concerned about the time it will take to develop a vaccine and get it distributed to the American public,” said Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations panel. “While we have been able to shorten the time it takes to develop new vaccines, the time it takes to ramp up production and deliver those vaccines to the public is something that I am still very much concerned about.”The other confirmed cases in the U.S. include patients at Arizona State University in Tempe; in Orange County, California; a man in his 30s in Washington state; and a passenger who felt ill after flying into Los Angeles International Airport. Each of those cases involve patients who had recently traveled from Wuhan.A Kalitta Air Boeing 747 carrying nearly 200 American diplomats and citizens was evacuated on Tuesday and arrived early Wednesday at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, California. Passengers underwent two medical screenings in China before boarding, two more screenings upon their layover in Alaska, and voluntarily agreed to remain on the premises for additional checks by the CDC at the air force base, where they were given assigned living quarters. Authorities have said they will transport any passenger with symptoms to a hospital.The U.S. State Department announced on Thursday that it will provide additional evacuation flights “on or about Feb. 3” to accommodate the more than 700 private American citizens still stuck in Wuhan who have requested government assistance in getting out of the port city.The flights will be available on a “reimbursable basis” and passengers will again be subject to “CDC screening, health evaluation, and monitoring requirements” before, during, and after travel, according to a press release.A day earlier, President Donald Trump announced the formation of a “president’s coronavirus task force” to lead the federal response to the outbreak in the U.S., alongside the Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC.By Thursday, China’s death toll from the infection had reached 171, with 8,149 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to state media outlets. A day earlier, the number of infections in China officially eclipsed the tally of 5,327 people infected with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus that killed about 800 people across the globe in 2002 and 2003.The CDC has also sent a team to China to assist health officials in that country, after alleged rebukes from authorities when they were presented with previous offers.At last count, there were 98 cases confirmed outside of China in 18 countries, according to the World Health Organization. Even with global efforts to curb the spread of the virus, confirmed cases have now emerged in Finland, India, and the Philippines, said the organization, in addition to others previously reported in Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Taiwan, Australia, Macau, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, France, Canada, Vietnam, and Nepal. There have been no reported deaths outside China.Authorities did say on Wednesday, however, that they had confirmed person-to-person transmission in Germany, Vietnam, and Japan. Japan, Australia, South Korea, France, Morocco, Germany, Kazakhstan, Britain, Canada, Russia, the Netherlands, and Myanmar were working to evacuate their citizens from the epicenter of the virus. Six hundred Australian citizens who were to be flown out of China’s Hubei province will be subsequently isolated for up to 14 days on Christmas Island, which is about 1,600 miles northwest of mainland Australia, according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Meanwhile, Russia is closing its Far East border with China in an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus, according to Mikhail Mishustin, the country’s new prime minister. Several international airlines had either suspended or reduced service to China by Thursday morning, including American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Delta, United, Air Seoul, KLM, British Airways, Lufthansa, and Air Canada.The WHO has for some time now recommended this rapidly-spreading condition be referred to as 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease, where “n” stands for novel and “CoV” for coronavirus, to distinguish it from past outbreaks.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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New Bolton Book Allegations Drop Hours ahead of Vote on Witnesses

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 book, The Room Where it Happened, disrupted Republicans' blanket opposition to calling witnesses in the impeachment trial. After unanimously resisting Democrats' calls for Bolton to testify, moderate Republicans began to waver on Monday.Democrats need four Republican senators to vote in favor of calling witnesses in order for the motion to pass. Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine have announced their support, however moderate Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has still not released her position. Senator Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.), considered a swing vote, came out Thursday against calling witnesses.Democrats may argue that because revelations from Bolton's book have surfaced once again, a vote to allow witnesses at the trial-presumably including Bolton-would be necessary.The revelation that Trump's pressure campaign had begun as early as May and involved Bolton directly came moments after Senator John Cornyn (R., Texas) warned of the possibility the vote on President Trump's impeachment may be pushed back to next week."My guess is it probably is going to carry us over to the first part of next week," Cornyn told CNN. White House officials also told the network it was possible the trial would drag out into next week."I never instructed John Bolton to set up a meeting for Rudy Giuliani, one of the greatest corruption fighters in America…to meet with President Zelensky. That meeting never happened," Trump told the Times.

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South African Airways Faces Long Haul After Funding Lifeline

(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 100 domestic and international flights based on weak bookings.Matuson & Associates have said securing an equity partner for SAA is at the heart of its rescue strategy -- an option that’s been talked about for years but never materialized.“It would not be possible to get an equity partner in until SAA demonstrates a turnaround and level of profitability to enable a reasonable return,” Vermooten said Wednesday. “I cannot foresee this soon.”Ethiopian InterestSAA has lost money since 2012 as it grapples with high costs, an inefficient jet fleet, mismanagement and corruption allegations. Pooling resources with a partner could enable SAA to reduce operating expenses, while the sale of equity would also help pay down debt.Carriers that have expressed an interest in the past include Ethiopian Airlines Group, which said in October it would consider a deal in part to defend African airlines against competition from rivals in the Gulf. The Addis Ababa-based airline didn’t respond to requests for comment.The state-owned DBSA’s decision to put cash into SAA came months after the government agreed to provide it with a 2 billio-rand lifeline, and the move has raised eyebrows in some quarters.Mkhuleko Hlengwa, the chairman of the South African parliament’s public accounts committee, told a state-owned radio station the money is being lent without enough due diligence as the airline has failed to release financial statements.And while Grant Back, chairman of the SAA Pilots Association, welcomed the DBSA intervention and said it should reassure passengers that it’s safe to buy tickets, he said the management team must be replaced en masse.“Until now, government has failed to hold management accountable for the downward spiral of the airline and this cannot continue,” Back said in an emailed statement. “Managers are still making poor decisions at grave cost to the airline.”Louise Brugman, a spokeswoman for Matuson & Associates, declined to comment.(Updates with flight cancelations in third paragraph)\--With assistance from Roxanne Henderson.To contact the reporters on this story: John Bowker in Johannesburg at jbowker2@bloomberg.net;Paul Vecchiatto in Cape Town at pvecchiatto@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Mike Cohen, Paul RichardsonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency Over Coronavirus Fears

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 they were putting 195 people who recently returned from China under quarantine for two weeks, dubbing it an “unprecedented” step that was now warranted.“We are preparing as this is the next pandemic, but hopeful this is not and will not be the case,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said on a call with reporters. “We would rather be remembered for overreacting to under-reacting.”The move came after one of those recently-returned travelers reportedly attempted to leave the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, after arriving from Wuhan, China. The CDC declined to provide more information on the individual. There are currently over 9,800 cases of coronavirus in China, while the number of confirmed cases in the United States remained steady at six. Only one, the husband of a woman who recently traveled abroad, had been spread in-country, the CDC said previously. No one had died as a result of infection in the United States by the CDC's latest count.But Messonnier pointed to the most recent number of cases in China, which she said represented a 26 percent increase over Thursday's numbers, as a cause for growing vigilance. She also mentioned an increasing number of reports of person-to-person spread, including growing evidence that the 2019 novel coronavirus can be spread by people who have not yet experienced symptoms. The New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday released a study describing a case in Germany that appeared to show the spread of the virus from a person who traveled to China to several others.“The current scenario is a cause for concern,” Messonnier said.WHO Calls Coronavirus ‘Emergency’ as Person-to-Person Spread Confirmed in U.S.When asked if the coronavirus were more dangerous than the flu, Messonnier said there appeared to be “significant mortality related with this disease” based on cases coming out of China. However, she still didn't recommend face masks for the general public and urged people to stay calm.“Please do not let fear guide your actions,” she said, adding that the public shouldn't assume Asian Americans have the virus amid reports of surging xenophobia against people of Chinese descent worldwide. “There are about 4 million Chinese-Americans in this country.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander called Trump's actions 'inappropriate' but says he will vote against a motion for witnesses in impeachment trial

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.

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Bernie Sanders told Ninth Graders the U.S. Committed Acts in Vietnam ‘Almost as Bad as what Hitler Did’

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 parents of soldiers killed in the fighting.Sanders also outlined other positions that may sound familiar to today's voters, including increasing the minimum wage and availability of low-income housing, as well as increased access to dental care. He also charged that the Democratic Party was too beholden to large corporations.The Vermont senator received around one percent of the vote in that election. Sanders is currently the strongest presidential candidate from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and has polled ahead of moderate Joe Biden in various Iowa and New Hampshire surveys.Establishment Democrats have been worried by Sanders's rise and durability throughout the primary. The senator has relied on an enthusiastic base of younger progressive voters, and has received strong grassroots financial support.

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Chief Justice Roberts succinctly steamrolls Rand Paul's impeachment question — again

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 Security Council and Democrat partisans conspired with Schiff staffers to plot impeaching the President before there were formal House impeachment proceedings.> > -- Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 30, 2020He then complained that he received no rationale for why his question was rejected this time around, and then read that question, which named the alleged whistleblower, to the press.More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi 7 witheringly funny cartoons about the GOP's John Bolton problem

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Schumer Says Vote to Call Witnesses is an ‘Uphill Battle’ as Wavering Republicans Come Out in Favor of Speedy End to Trial

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer admitted Wednesday that Democrats will struggle to force witness testimony and additional evidence during the Senate impeachment trial as Republicans who were previously on the fence began to announce they will vote with their party.”We’ve always known it will be an uphill fight on witnesses and on documents because the president and Mitch McConnell put huge pressure on these folks,” the New York Democrat said.Schumer insisted that the public is “overwhelmingly on our side for witnesses” as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell attempts to garner enough votes to bring the trial to a swift conclusion.Republican senators Cory Gardner of Colorado and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania had hedged on whether they would vote to call more witnesses to testify during the trial, but both said Wednesday they would vote not to do so. McConnell reportedly warned on Tuesday during a caucus meeting that he lacked the 51 votes to shut down Democrats's requests for witnesses.The question of whether to call witnesses was complicated earlier this week after a bombshell report from the New York Times, which revealed that John Bolton states in his upcoming memoir that in August he personally witnessed President Trump tie the provision of military aid to politically beneficial investigations.The White House National Security Council afterwards claimed that Bolton’s book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, scheduled for release March 17, contained classified information “at the TOP SECRET level” and could “cause exceptionally grave harm to the national security.” Bolton's lawyer disputed that claim in a Wednesday statement.Democrats have called for testimony from Bolton, who has said he is willing to appear before the Senate for testimony if subpoenaed. Trump's legal team has also called for witness testimony from House impeachment manager Adam Schiff, Joe and Hunter Biden and the intelligence community whistleblower who first brought attention to the allegations of a quid pro quo by Trump.The Senate votes on witnesses and whether to introduce new evidence are set for Friday.

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China virus death toll tops 200 as WHO declares global emergency

The death toll in China from the new coronavirus reached 213 on Friday, with overall cases worldwide rising rapidly in an outbreak that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency. The death toll in Hubei, the Chinese province at the center of the epidemic, had risen to 204 and there were 9,692 cases of infection nationally as of Thursday, Chinese health authorities said. About 100 cases have been reported in at least 18 other countries, with no deaths outside China.

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'It's utter bulls--t': Navy SEAL was promoted despite allegations he choked a Green Beret to death

The Navy SEAL has been charged in the death. His defense attorneys previously said the incident was merely a "prank" that "went bad."

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The Hummer EV Pickup Is Real, and It Has 1000 HP

The new electric truck will be available starting in late 2021, GM says, and appears in a Super Bowl ad this Sunday.

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No hot meals, blankets, magazines as airlines step up fight on virus

Passengers on some flights to China will have to make do without hot meals, blankets and newspapers, as airlines step up measures to protect crew and travellers from a new virus that has killed more than 130 in the country. Seeking to contain the spread of the coronavirus by reducing personal contact, Taiwan's China Airlines said it was encouraging passengers to bring their own drinks bottles and would limit re-usable items by replacing them with disposables. The airline and its regional arm Mandarin Airlines stopped from Monday serving hot meals and have replaced tablecloths and napkins with paper towels on cross-strait and Hong Kong flights.

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Erdogan Warns Russia Risks Split With Turkey on Syria Attack

(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 al-Nu’man, the biggest town in Idlib province. The strategically important area last changed hands in 2012, Anadolu reported on Wednesday.Russia responded to Erdogan’s comments by saying it’s committed to strictly implementing its obligations on Syria, the state-run Tass news service reported, citing the Foreign Ministry in Moscow.Millions of Syrians fleeing fighting in Syria over the years have headed for Turkey, and officials there have long warned of another major exodus as combat escalates in Idlib.(Updates with Russian Foreign Ministry in sixth paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Firat Kozok in Ankara at fkozok@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams, Paul AbelskyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Here's what the White House letter about Bolton's book really means

What appeared to be a White House bid to stop former national security adviser John Bolton from publishing his book, which may have explosive claims about his interactions with President Trump, is really just a standard letter regarding classification review, according to legal experts.

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Greta Thunberg nominated for Nobel Peace Prize by Swedish MPs

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg and the global protest movement "Fridays for Future" were nominated Thursday for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize by two Swedish lawmakers. "Greta Thunberg is a climate activist, and the main reason she deserves the Nobel Peace Prize is that despite her young age, she has worked hard to make politicians open their eyes to the climate crisis," Left Party parliamentarians Jens Holm and Hakan Svenneling wrote in a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

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'I'm in an apocalypse:' American student trapped in coronavirus-hit Chinese city

An eerie calm has descended on the normally bustling streets of the city of 11 million people, where Schneider has been studying geodesy - a branch of applied mathematics - at Wuhan University, about 10 miles (16 km) from where experts believe the new coronavirus originated in a market illegally trading in wildlife. Chinese officials cut most transport links to Wuhan on Jan. 23 in an effort to slow transmission of the virus, which has infected nearly 6,000 people in China - more cases than were recorded in the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak - and killed more than 130 people.

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Mexican butterfly activist found dead

The body of an environmental activist who fought to protect the famed monarch butterfly has been found in a well two weeks after he went missing, officials say.Homero Gomez Gonzalez, 50, was reported missing on 14 January amid fears he had been targeted by criminal gangs and illegal loggers in the central Mexican state of Michoacan.

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It’s D-Day for Doomsday Mom Lori Vallow to Produce Missing Kids

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 complies with the order and brings an end to the troubling mystery.Idaho Doomsday Couple Found in Hawaii—Without Missing KidsKauai Prosecuting Attorney Justin Kollar told The Daily Beast on Wednesday that he’s been involved in other missing persons cases over the last decade, “but I’ve never seen one with so many twists and turns.”He did not know if Vallow and Daybell had left Hawaii for Idaho, and Kauai police did not return calls for comment. In Idaho, authorities are being very close-lipped because much of the child-protection case is sealed.“We hope and pray that the children will be produced or found and that they are safe and healthy,” Madison County Prosecuting Attorney Rob Wood said in a statement.A reporter for East Idaho News, who was in Kauai when police stopped the couple with a search warrant last weekend and seized their vehicle, pelted them with questions about the children that they refused to answer. Told that people were praying for Tylee and J.J., Vallow had a two-word response: “That’s great.”Beyond that, the newlyweds have only commented on the situation in a single, brief statement from an Idaho attorney. “Chad Daybell was a loving husband and has the support of his children in this matter. Lori (Vallow) Daybell is a devoted mother and resents assertions to the contrary. We look forward to addressing the allegations once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor,” lawyer Sean Bartholick said.Idaho police maintain there’s a lot more than speculation at play. No one has seen the children since late September. Daybell and Vallow got hitched soon after their previous spouses died—deaths that are now under new scrutiny. And they have refused to assist police in any way.“We strongly believe that Joshua and Tylee’s lives are in danger,” Rexburg police said last month.Chad Daybell, 51, is a prolific author of books aimed at a Mormon audience. With titles like Days of Fury, Evading Babylon, and The Rise of Zion, they focus on doomsday scenarios and near-death situations.A memoir, Living on the Edge of Heaven, catalogs what he says were his own near-death experiences, during a cliff-jumping incident when he was 17 and being hit by a wave at La Jolla Cove in California in his twenties.“While his body was being tossed by the wave, his spirit was visiting with his grandfather, who showed him future events involving his still-unborn children,” an Amazon summary of the book reads. “This accident caused his veil that separates mortal life from the Spirit World to stay partially open, so he often feels as if he has a foot in both worlds.”Lori Vallow, 46, was living in Hawaii with her fourth husband Charles, Tylee, and J.J. when she reportedly began reading Daybell’s florid end-times prose and became obsessed with his worldview.It’s not clear exactly how or when they met, but by 2018, she was involved with a group called Preparing a People that put on conferences, lectures and podcasts for those who, as its website says, “look forward to the rapidly coming changes to our current Telestial way of life, and rejoice in the hope of a far better world to soon come!”By then, Lori and Charles had moved from Hawaii to Arizona—and their 12-year marriage was on the rocks.Slain Hubby Claimed Doomsday Mom Threatened to Kill HimFamily members have said that Lori took Tylee and J.J. and disappeared for weeks. Charles filed for divorce in February 2019, painting a disturbing picture of his wife.He said she had become “obsessive about near-death experiences and spiritual visions” and refused to see a mental health professional. She claimed to be “a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020,” Charles wrote in his petition, obtained by the Arizona Republic. He said she threatened to him kill him if he interfered with her plans.Charles didn’t go through with the divorce, though, withdrawing the petition a month later. He decamped to Texas while Lori stayed in Arizona. Four months later, he was dead.On July 11, 2019, he showed up at Lori’s home to see J.J. and was shot to death by her brother, Alex Cox, who told police it was self-defense. By his account, Charles got into an argument with Lori, became physical and then came at him with a baseball bat. “We knew immediately that was wrong,” Charles’ sister Kay Woodcock, who is also J.J,’s grandmother, said at a press conference earlier this month. “It was a setup.”Cox was not charged at the time and was found dead himself five months later of unknown causes. Arizona police have said the case was still open at the time.Within weeks of Charles Vallow’s killing, Lori moved to Idaho with Tylee and J.J. Kay Woodcock and her husband Larry, who live in Louisiana, said their contact with the little boy became more limited. “That was very concerning to us,” Kay said. By the end of September, J.J. was reportedly no longer attending Rexburg Elementary School.Over the next couple of weeks, police in Arizona and Idaho were alerted to two strange incidents that have since taken on greater significance.On Oct. 2, Brandon Boudreaux—who was in the midst of a divorce from Lori Vallow’s niece—was driving home from the gym in Glibert, Arizona, when a bullet came whizzing into his vehicle. He has said police told him the Jeep that raced away from the scene was registered to the late Charles Vallow.A week later, in Salem, Idaho, Chad Daybell’s wife, Tammy, 49, had just returned from the grocery store when, as she described to police, she was ambushed by someone clad in black and a ski mask who pointed what appeared to be a paintball gun at her. She called for Chad and the person took off.“She wasn’t shot, and there wasn’t any evidence to who it was. She figured it was a prankster. That’s what we wrote it up as,” Fremont County Sheriff Len Humphries told the Rexburg Standard Journal. “She wasn’t injured. Beyond what she told us, we had nothing to go on.”Ten days later, there was another call from the house. Tammy was dead.Doomsday Writer’s Friend Says He Prophesied Wife’s Mysterious DeathAn obituary said the mother of five grown children “passed away peacefully in her sleep.” Her father, Ron Douglas, told a Salt Lake City TV station Chad called him crying, saying that Tammy had a coughing fit the night before and simply never woke up. Chad turned down an autopsy and the death was listed as natural causes.According to the obituary, Tammy and Chad had met when she was a freshman at Brigham Young University and quickly married. She supported the family while he continued his education and helped him build the Spring Creek Book Company, which published his novels.Tammy and Chad had been married for nearly 30 years, but within weeks of her death, he remarried—reportedly traveling to Hawaii to tie the knot with Lori.By late November, the Woodcocks had grown very worried about J.J. and Tylee and asked authorities to check on them. When police showed up, Chad and Lori said the children were with relatives in Arizona. A quick check showed that was not true, but when cops returned the next day, the couple were gone. Investigators learned the children had not been seen in two months and, chillingly, that the couple had told people that Tylee was dead or that Lori did not have children.Now police were just as concerned as the Woodcocks—and not just about Tylee and J.J. In early December, they secured permission to exhume Tammy Daybell’s body to determine if there was foul play. (Autopsy results have not been completed). And police in Arizona began investigating Charles Vallow’s death with a new eye.Others began to reassess the couple, as well. Nancy and Michael James, who run Preparing a People—which they describe as a media company, not a religious organization—wrote on their website that they returned from a vacation to news of Tammy’s death.“We considered Chad Daybell a good friend, but have since learned of things we had no idea about,” they wrote last month in a post that has since been removed. “We recently learned of Chad's new marriage to Lori Vallow a couple weeks after Tammy Daybell died... We did not know Lori as well as we thought we knew Chad.”The Jameses announced they were removing any content on their site from Daybell or Vallow. “We pray for the truth of whatever happened to be quickly manifest,” they wrote.Those prayers would not be answered. On Dec. 30, Rexburg police issued an extraordinary statement, publicly blasting Vallow for refusing to cooperate with their search for her children.“We know that the children are not with Lori and Chad Daybell and we also have information indicating that Lori knows either the location of the children or what has happened to them. Despite having this knowledge, she has refused to work with law enforcement to help us resolve this matter,” they said.Police said that Vallow had left Idaho, but they did not say where she was. That became clear over the weekend when East Idaho News revealed that they were in Hawaii. They moved into a townhouse condo in a gated community bordering a golf course where neighbors said they kept to themselves.On Saturday, Kauai police served Vallow with the child protective order requiring her to produce the children in Idaho by Jan. 30. On Sunday, they stopped the couple at the Kauai Beach Resort, served search warrants and took their SUV away.On Wednesday, the Woodcocks—who have put up a $20,000 reward for information leading to the return of Tylee and J.J.—flew from Louisiana to Idaho in the hopes that Vallow does show up with the children. It’s what everyone hopes, even though nearly every development in the case has only raised more questions. As Tammy Daybell’s father, Ron Douglas, told Fox 13: “Every time you peel a layer off the onion it makes you scratch your head.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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The Democrats’ Civil War Gets Nasty in Iowa

Iowa’s tiny Jewish community doesn’t normally play a serious role in the first-in-the-nation presidential-nominating caucuses that make the Hawkeye State the center of attention every four years. But as the New York Times noted this week, a political civil war dividing Jewish Democrats has garnered national attention in the last days before Iowa votes on February 3.Down the stretch in Iowa, a centrist, pro-Israel super-PAC has launched a major ad campaign attacking Senator Bernie Sanders by name, calling attention to his recent heart attack, and questioning his electability. The well-funded group, Democratic Majority for Israel (DMI), was founded last year to counter a trend in which Democrats are increasingly perceived as drifting away from support for the Jewish state. A half-century ago, Democrats seemed like the solidly pro-Israel party while the GOP was divided on the issue. But in recent decades, Republicans have become the lockstep pro-Israel party, while the Democrats are split between centrists who remain broadly supportive of Israel and left-wing activists hostile to its policies and even its existence.Though Sanders is bidding, along with the more-centrist billionaire Michael Bloomberg, to be America’s first Jewish president, he is easily the most critical toward Israel of any of the Democratic candidates. Though he supports the Jewish state’s existence and spent some weeks there on a kibbutz in his youth, he also has a record of bashing the measures it uses to defend itself from terrorism. He is not alone among Democrats in being hostile to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu or in advocating a return to the Obama administration’s more equivocal stance toward Israel’s government. But he is the only contender in the Democratic presidential field to have advocated a freeze on U.S. aid to Israel as punishment for what he considers to be its “racist” prime minister. He has even argued that some of that aid should be diverted to Hamas-ruled Gaza, whose isolation by the international community he opposes.Just as important, Sanders’s campaign has earned the support of some of the party’s most fervent opponents of Israel, namely Representatives Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.). In the last year, Omar and Tlaib have been guilty of making flagrantly anti-Semitic remarks about supporters of Israel. Yet Sanders, who has denounced President Donald Trump as a “white nationalist” and accused him of being responsible for violence against Jews, has not distanced himself from them or campaign surrogate Linda Sarsour, the Women’s March leader who has also made a name for herself with anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist statements.Groups such as DMI rightly claim that Omar, Tlaib, and Sanders don’t speak for all Democrats on Israel or anti-Semitism. Yet Omar and Tlaib are treated like rock stars in their party and have faced no real consequences for their anti-Semitic statements or their support of the anti-Israel BDS movement, whose rhetoric is itself drenched in the language of traditional anti-Semitism. And Sanders, who is on record asserting that right-wing hate is a bigger concern than left-wing anti-Semitism, remains one of the front-runners for the nomination.Centrist Jewish Democrats have seen themselves forced to the sidelines in debates about Israel as liberal groups such as J Street and the openly anti-Zionist Jewish Voices for Peace led the charge against AIPAC and others who are supportive of the Jewish state. Republicans are able to tout Trump’s historic recognition of Jerusalem as the Jewish state’s capital and of Israel’s right to the Golan. Democrats correctly dismiss fears that Trump will make inroads among Jewish voters because of this; Jews remain among the Democrats’ most faithful supporters. But DMI fears that if Sanders wins the nomination, Israel will become a major point of contention in the general election and that Jewish Democrats will be forced to choose between their partisan loyalties and their affection for Israel.With Sanders leading the RealClearPolitics average of polls in both Iowa and New Hampshire, it’s obvious that DMI is in full anybody-but-Bernie mode, and that more than the Democratic presidential nomination is at stake: The group’s anti-Sanders efforts can be seen as one salvo in a broader war between the left-wing activists and centrists for control of the Democratic party. Israel has flown under the radar as an issue in the presidential race, with most Democrats focused on health care, the economy, and beating Trump. But it could yet play a much bigger role in determining the nominee and the future of his party.

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Following review of attack that killed 3 Americans, Pentagon finds 'potential vulnerabilities' at bases in Africa

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.

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Justice Roberts Blocks Rand Paul from Naming Whistleblower During Impeachment Trial

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 reports over the course of the impeachment process."I don't want to have to stand up to try and fight for recognition," Paul reportedly said after his question was rejected.House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) publicly revealed the existence of the whistleblower complaint in September, a complaint that eventually led to the impeachment of President Trump. Republicans have accused Schiff of improperly coordinating his actions with the whistleblower.

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British officials: Tanker on fire in Gulf off Sharjah in UAE

The United Kingdom’s Maritime Trade Operations said the fire struck the vessel northwest of Sharjah, an Emirati sheikhdom. Emirati officials said they were working to put out the blaze some 21 miles (34 kilometers) off the coast of Sharjah. The blaze comes amid heightened tensions in the region after the U.S. killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad and Iran fired ballistic missiles at Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops.

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Iranian factory makes U.S. and Israeli flags to burn

Business is booming at Iran's largest flag factory which makes U.S., British and Israeli flags for Iranian protesters to burn. The factory produces about 2,000 U.S. and Israeli flags a month in its busiest periods, and more than 1.5 million square feet of flags a year. Tensions between the United States and Iran have reached the highest level in decades after top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3, prompting Iran to retaliate with a missile attack against a U.S. base in Iraq days later.

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US hits Iran with new sanctions, keeps some waivers in place

The Trump administration said Thursday that it will continue — at least for now — its policy of not sanctioning foreign companies that work with Iran's civilian nuclear program. Brian Hook, U.S. envoy to Iran, said the U.S. would renew for 60 days sanctions waivers that permit Russian, European and Chinese companies to continue to work on Iran's civilian nuclear facilities without running afoul of U.S. sanctions.

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'Game over!' Trump likely to be acquitted as impeachment trial draws to a close

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.

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Family of handcuffed man fatally shot expresses sorrow, relief after officer charged

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.

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Doorbell Cam Captures Chilling Audio of Kobe Bryant’s Crash

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 flight data recorder or a cockpit voice recorder, according to reports.Federal investigators said the helicopter lost communications with air-traffic controllers when it climbed to 2,300 feet as the pilot attempted to avoid a cloud layer. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials said the helicopter then began a descending left turn and crashed into the hills of Calabasas at roughly 1,085 feet above sea level. The chopper was descending at more than 2,000 feet a minute in the moments before impact.“Preliminary information is that the helicopter was in one piece when it impacted the terrain,” a spokesperson told the Journal. “This is a pretty steep descent at high speed.”Bill English, an investigator-in-charge with the NTSB, said, “It’s important to realize that there’s not one hill. It’s a ravine with undulating terrain, so the small outcropping that had the main impact in it, the main impact was about 20 to 30 feet from the top of that small hill. But there are actually other higher hills surrounding it.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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The outbreaks of both the Wuhan coronavirus and SARS likely started in Chinese wet markets. Photos show what the markets look like.

The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak likely started in a Chinese wet market, where livestock and poultry are sold alongside animals like dogs and civets.

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Trump news - live: White House sends threatening letter to Bolton, as key witness unexpectedly appears at impeachment trial

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.

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Like Kobe Bryant, my husband died in a tragic accident. The worst came later when I realized how much died with him.

While swimming in the ocean last summer, Lee Dingle was hit by a wave, broke his neck, and died. His wife, Shannon, is now raising six kids alone.

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This Picture Is North Korea, China, Iran and Russia's Worst Military Nightmare

Imagine 52 F-35s coming at you.

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The history of the US Air Force private jet that crashed in Afghanistan and has been called 'as essential to mission success as bullets'

The US Air Force E-11A is a modified version of a popular Canadian private jet built by Bombardier used for long-range luxury travel.

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Kobe Bryant helicopter video emerges showing ill-fated flight minutes before crash

A video that appears to show Kobe Bryant’s helicopter circling over California roughly 15 minutes before the fatal crash has been posted online, illustrating the foggy conditions faced by the chopper on its last flight.In the video, which was posted by a user on Twitter who said they live in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale — where Bryant’s flight circled for roughly 10 minutes on Sunday awaiting instruction, according to flight records — the helicopter can be seen moving slowly in the sky above, obscured by the early morning fog.

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