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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Bernie Sanders is starting to get slammed on how he would finance Medicare for All

The attacks on Medicare for All echo what Sen. Elizabeth Warren faced last year as she surged ahead in national polls.

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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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Bloomberg glides past Warren to No. 3 in Democratic race — Reuters/Ipsos poll

After steadily rising in popularity over the last several weeks, former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg appears to have surpassed Sen. Elizabeth Warren among registered voters for the 2020 Democratic nomination, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national public opinion poll released Thursday.

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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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Hillary Clinton Slams Bernie Sanders for Not Working to Unite Democrats in 2016

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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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Plans for Alabama’s Deadly Prisons ‘Won’t Fix the Horrors’

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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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Brexit Has Arrived. But Boris Johnson’s Reign Is Just Beginning.

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Senators say they’ve settled on a schedule that would end the trial on Wednesday.

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Battle Lines Quickly Form Over Radical Property Tax Proposal

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Impeachment Trial Highlights: A Showdown Over Calling Witnesses

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CPR, by Default

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Alberto Salazar Is Suspended by SafeSport After Accusations of Verbal Abuse

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Kobe Bryant’s Death: Live Updates as the Lakers Prepare to Play the Blazers

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Kobe Bryant helicopter firm was not allowed to fly in fog

Island Express Helicopters was restricted to flying in clear conditions, officials say.

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Could you handle the most remote campsite on earth?

Take a look inside an Antarctic campsite and find out how they survive.

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Trump impeachment: Failed witnesses vote paves way for acquittal

Bid to call witnesses in the Trump impeachment trial fails, setting up a likely acquittal next week.

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The Papers: 'Make leave not war' and 'what next?'

Saturday's newspapers mark a "moment of history" as Britain leaves the European Union after 47 years.

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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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Republican senator laments starkly partisan nature of the trial.

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New York Is Urged to Consider Surge Pricing for Taxis

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More American Troops Sustain Brain Injuries From Iran Missile Strike in Iraq

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Everyone Wants a Piece

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¿Hará el papa Francisco un milagro con la deuda de Argentina?

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Alexander asks about the differences in bipartisanship under Nixon and Trump.

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Day 9 of Trump’s Trial: Tedium and Tea-Leaf Reading

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Fred Silverman, 82, Is Dead; a TV Force When Three Networks Ruled

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Fotis Dulos, Accused of Killing Jennifer Dulos, Is Dead

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Senators break for dinner.

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Amazon Christmas sales soar as rivals struggle

Sales were up 20% over the festive season in sharp contrast to weakness at other retailers.

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Nicaragua: Six indigenous people reportedly killed in attack

The Mayagna group has been involved in disputes with new settlers searching for land and resources.

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The Papers: Will Brexit hail a 'new dawn' or a 'small island'?

The papers mark the day the UK leaves the EU - "Brexit day" - with a mixture of optimism and regret.

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'It's hysteria': Asian students at Arizona State University say they're being treated differently after a case of the Wuhan coronavirus was confirmed there

A case of the coronavirus was confirmed at Arizona State University on Sunday, and Asian students have felt backlash ever since.

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Investigators: Kobe Bryant's pilot tried to gain altitude before crash

The National Transportation Safety Board provided an update on Monday afternoon about its investigation into the helicopter crash that killed Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven others Sunday morning in Calabasas, California.There was heavy fog in the area, and the pilot told air traffic controllers that he was going to try to fly higher to avoid a cloud layer, the NTSB said. When controllers asked him to share more information, he did not respond. Flight radar suggests the helicopter made it to 2,300 feet then began dropping down to the left, The New York Times reports.Investigators are taking a "broad look at everything" around the accident, NTSB official Jennifer Homendy said. "We look at man, machine, and the environment, and weather is just a small portion of that."Investigators are now searching a debris field of 500 to 600 feet for perishable evidence. The helicopter did not have a cockpit voice recorder.More stories from theweek.com John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi It's 2020 and women are exhausted All the president's turncoats

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Police find mom of 2 missing kids in Hawaii with husband

Police say a mother of two missing kids has been found in Hawaii along with her new husband, but there’s still no sign of the children in the cross-country investigation, which includes several mysterious deaths.

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Biden's final Iowa drive sweeps through rival territory

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.

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Prince Andrew Does Nothing to Help the Jeffrey Epstein Investigation. Meanwhile, the Royal Family Burns.

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 deny the claims of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, and did not show any form of compassion for her or Epstein’s victims.Prince Andrew: I Didn’t Have Sex With Virginia Roberts Giuffre. I Was Eating Pizza.Officially, the palace is refusing to comment at all, arguing that Andrew, who was stripped of his royal duties last year, is no longer formally represented by the palace. But in a series of off-the-record briefings, journalists were told that the issue was “being dealt with by the Duke of York’s legal team.”Keep calm and carry on, eh?One might almost have thought that the British monarchy had not been a roiling tempest of crisis management for the past six months, so casual has been the response to this latest disaster to afflict the firm.Into the news void left by the palace have leapt celebrity attorneys Lisa Bloom and her mother, Gloria Allred—who between them are representing at least six of Epstein’s alleged victims—and Virginia Roberts Giuffre herself, who alleges she was forced to have sex with Andrew several times and was photographed with him at Ghislaine Maxwell’s house.Bloom told the BBC the alleged victims were “outraged” by the Duke of York not assisting the U.S. authorities and said, “I’m glad that Geoffrey Berman has gone public to try to embarrass Prince Andrew, who made one statement and then behind closed doors is doing something very different. The five Epstein victims who I represent are outraged and disappointed at Prince Andrew's behavior here. “If Prince Andrew truly has done nothing wrong, then it’s incumbent upon him to go and speak to the FBI at a time that’s convenient for him and say what he knows. Perhaps he can help bring other people to justice.”Allred said Tuesday morning that she had sent a letter to Prince Andrew’s home urging him to co-operate, but hadn’t received a response.She told BBC Radio 4’s Today, “No response is the same as zero co-operation. This is ridiculous. It’s just not acceptable. Prince Andrew has a moral obligation to volunteer to speak to law enforcement—that’s what he said he would do.”One can only wonder how the Queen, 93, and Prince Philip, 98, must be feeling at the speed with which their children have destroyed the royal virtues of discretion and irreproachability. The announcement in New York came after several incidents that showed Andrew had not lost the support of his mother, despite the allegations being made against him.He has been pictured attending church with her, riding on the Windsor Great Park estate, and journalists have been briefed that Andrew has been supporting his mother through the turmoil of Harry and Meghan’s departure from the royal family.As a reminder, here’s Andrew reluctantly promising to help out if “push came to shove.” That moment has, surely, arrived.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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NRSC Condemns ‘Shortsightedness’ of Georgia Rep. Doug Collins after He Announces Senate Run

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 another DC politician. We’ll have her back if she needs us."Georgia governor Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler in December after Republican senator Johnny Isakson retired due to ongoing health issues. Kemp reportedly chose Loeffler, a multimillionaire businesswoman, to broaden GOP appeal to suburban and female voters.However, in doing so Kemp bucked President Trump and allies, who preferred that Collins be appointed to the Senate. Collins was a staunch supporter of Trump during House impeachment hearings.Loeffler must win a 2020 special election in order to complete Isakson's term. The freshman senator, who has been criticized by conservatives for her record on abortion, has strongly condemned the effort to impeach the president since taking office.

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Blue States Are Burying Damning Data About School Funds — Red States Are, Too

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Sinkholes appear in Cayman Islands after massive 7.7-magnitude earthquake

Viral footage appears to show sinkholes swallowing large chunks of roads following a string of earthquakes off the coasts of Jamaica and Cuba.A major 7.7 magnitude quake prompted tsunami warnings and building evacuations as far as Miami, several hundred miles from the quake's centre.

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To Truly Move On, the Astros Needed Dusty Baker

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As Coronavirus Explodes in China, Countries Struggle to Control Its Spread

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Coronavirus Spreads, and the World Pays for China’s Dictatorship

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