Trump lawyer: Joe and Hunter Biden have 'relevant evidence' for impeachment trial

A member of President Trump's defense team says that former Vice President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden have “relevant evidence” and could be summoned to testify if the Senate votes next week to permit witnesses in the impeachment trial. “If your big contention here is that there was an improper motive by President Trump in pursuing this conversation with President Zelensky relative to the investigation of the Bidens, it seems to me your views about that are colored or affected by whether or not you think there was merit to such an investigation,” Ray continued.

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  With defense up next, where does the impeachment trial against Trump go?

  CBS News Videos
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  The White House is reportedly worried that House Democrats will continue to dig up damaging information on Trump after the impeachment trial

  Business Insider

Man kept woman as sex slave for five years, say police

A man has been charged with human trafficking after he allegedly kept a sex slave for five years. Salvador Espinoza Escobar, 48, is accused of “withholding basic needs in exchange for forced sexual acts” with the woman since January 2015. He was arrested in North Carolina on Wednesday following a tip-off to the national human trafficking hotline.

Postal worker dies a week after being shot while delivering mail in Mississippi

A Mississippi postal worker who was shot while delivering mail last week has died. Sherry Ingold died at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson on Friday night, Postal Inspector Tony Robinson said. Ingold was shot on Mississippi Highway 35 in Attala County northeast of Jackson on Jan. 16.

Pentagon says 34 U.S. troops had brain injuries from Iran strike

The Pentagon said Friday that 34 U.S. troops were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries suffered in this month's Iranian missile strike on an Iraqi air base, and that half the troops have returned to their military duties.

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  34 service members suffered brain injuries from Iran missiles: Pentagon

  ABC News Videos
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  34 US service members had brain injuries from Iran's strike, Pentagon says

  WLS – Chicago

China is Expanding into the Indian Ocean—Here Are Five Things the Indian Navy Can Do About It

For decades, the Indian Navy has been the dominant regional power in the Indian Ocean, and has even boasted a carrier aviation capability that was nearly unique in Asia. But as outlined in a report by the Center for New American Security (CNAS), the growth of Chinese military power in the last two decades has dramatically eclipsed India's own attempts to modernize and expand its forces—particularly in the maritime domain. This is problematic due to New Delhi's tense relations with Beijing since a 1962 border war.

Hong Kong, U.S. take steps to curb coronavirus spread

As experts tell people not to panic about the unfamiliar coronavirus, several governments are taking steps to limit its spread. A second case of the respiratory virus that originated in Wuhan, China, leaving more than 40 people dead and causing quarantines and transit closures throughout China, has been confirmed in the United States. The Chicago patient, who last week returned home from Wuhan, is reportedly isolated in the hospital, and officials say she's doing well and has had limited contact with others.

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  Coronavirus: Baby born to 'infected' mother as backlash grows against local Wuhan officials

  The Telegraph
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  Coronavirus: Ministers urge Britons to leave Wuhan but fail to say if they will provide airlifts after lockdown leaves many trapped

  The Independent

Chinese Uighurs in Saudi face impossible choice

His eyes brimming with tears, a Uighur student in Saudi Arabia holds out his Chinese passport -- long past its expiry date and condemning him to an uncertain fate as the kingdom grows closer to Beijing. The Chinese mission in Saudi Arabia stopped renewing passports for the ethnic Muslim minority more than two years ago, in what campaigners call a pressure tactic exercised in many countries to force the Uighur diaspora to return home. Half a dozen Uighur families in Saudi Arabia who showed AFP their passports -- a few already expired and some approaching the date -- said they dread going back to China, where over a million Uighurs are believed to be held in internment camps.

Biden picks up another high profile endorsement in Iowa as voting nears

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden picked up another high profile endorsement on Saturday in Iowa, where the party's nominating contest kicks off in nine days, after U.S. congresswoman Cindy Axne said she was backing the former vice president. Axne, a freshman U.S. lawmaker and moderate, is the latest in a slew of big-name endorsements for Biden in Iowa which could have an impact on undecided voters as caucus day nears on Feb. 3. Two former Iowa Democratic governors, Tom Vilsack and Chet Culver, have backed Biden, as has another U.S. House member, congresswoman Abby Finkenauer.

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  Biden, Bloomberg Hit Trump for Calling Brass ‘Dopes and Babies’

  Bloomberg
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  Recent polls indicate Bernie Sanders has a narrow lead going into the Iowa caucuses, but the contest is still largely up for grabs

  Business Insider

Photos from the Lunar New Year show how coronavirus turned China's biggest party into a washout

Crowds gather in Ditan Park in Beijing, China. Thomas Peter/Reuters2020: Ditan Park is eerily empty as workers took down the lantern decorations after the Lunar New Year celebration was cancelled. Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters2019: Signs with the Chinese character "Fu," which means "Good luck," hang in the Forbidden City.

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  Coronavirus raises concerns about LA-area Lunar New Year celebrations

  KABC – Los Angeles
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  Lunar New Year 2020: Five things you may not know about the Spring Festival

  The Independent

Millions of locusts are swarming in Kenya. These striking photos show just how bad the outbreak is

It's the worst locust outbreak to hit Kenya in 70 years. Hundreds of millions of the small bugs are swarming in from neighboring Somalia and Ethiopia with unprecedented size and destructive potential, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. The Desert Locust, the most devastating of all locust species, is eating up crops in areas already susceptible to food and water shortages.

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  Locust swarms descend on East Africa, posing 'major food security problem'

  The Telegraph
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  ‘This is huge’: Locust swarms in Africa are worst in decades

  MarketWatch

North Korean Leader's Aunt Re-Emerges After Husband's Execution

The aunt of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, has re-emerged in Pyongyang, the capital, the country's media said Sunday, dispelling rumors that she was purged after her powerful husband was executed on charges of plotting a coup to topple Kim in 2013. North Korea's state-run media said Kim Kyong Hui, the only sister of Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il, accompanied her nephew to an orchestra performance Saturday for Lunar New Year's Day. Photos released in state media showed her dressed in black and sitting with her nephew, his wife, his sister and other top leaders in the front row at a theater in Pyongyang.

Trade Truce? China and America Have a Small Trade Deal—but Will It Last?

The United States and China moved Dec. 12 to soothe the sting of their trade war, agreeing in principle to a so-called "phase one" trade deal that would ease the reciprocal tariffs that have reverberated through the world economy for almost two years. One crucial aspect of the deal is an agreement by the United States to suspend additional tariffs set to take effect Dec. 15 and, crucially, reduce some of the tariffs already in place on some $360 billion in Chinese goods. Although officials did not provide text of the agreement that was authorized by U.S. President Donald Trump, Washington has reportedly agreed to cancel a new round of 15 percent tariffs on $160 billion worth of Chinese products — mainly consumer goods.

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  UK to use high tariff threat to raise pressure in trade negotiations - The Times

  Reuters
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  Trump increases tariffs on derivative steel, aluminum products from some countries

  Reuters

Germany urged to fight anti-Semitism to avoid Jewish exodus

Germany's foreign minister is calling for strengthened efforts against anti-Semitism to ward off the possibility that many Jews decide to leave the country. Maas' comments came a day before the 75th anniversary of the Soviet liberation of the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp and at a time of rising concern in Germany and elsewhere in Europe about anti-Semitism. “We must urgently take countermeasures so that such thoughts don't turn into bitter reality and it doesn't come to a massive exodus of Jews from Germany,” he wrote.

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  Auschwitz survivor pained by rise in anti-Semitism

  USA TODAY
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  Anti-Semitic attack sparks Italy protest

  AFP

Seven months detained: seven-year-old is longest-held child migrant in US

Maddie has been detained the longest of any child currently held in family immigration detention across the country, her attorneys say. On 17 January, she turned seven years old at Berks county residential center, a controversial detention facility in Pennsylvania where she has spent roughly 8% of her life. Despite her lawyers exhausting the legal avenues that could get her out, the government won't release her and Emerson together.

In Peru, 'they teach you to be ashamed,' indigenous trans candidate says

The first indigenous transgender candidate to run for parliament in Peru says it's time to end the culture of machismo in the South American country. "I suffered, in my own flesh, the consequences of inequality, discrimination, violence and corruption," Gahela Cari, 27, said in an interview with AFP before Sunday's nationwide parliamentary ballot. "We have to stop educating future macho men," she said during a break from campaigning.

Death Toll Rises in Turkey Quake as Erdogan Slams Social Media

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Turkey's eastern Elazig province on Friday evening killed at least 31 people and injured hundreds. By Sunday, 45 people had been rescued from the rubble of collapsed buildings. A total of 76 buildings were destroyed and 645 heavily damaged, the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, or AFAD, said in a statement.

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  Residents fear aftershocks more than cold after Turkey quake

  AFP
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  Powerful quake hits eastern Turkey, four dead

  AFP

U.S. will not lift sanctions to negotiate with Iran - Trump

The United States will not lift sanctions on Iran in order to negotiate, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted late on Saturday, seemingly in response to a Der Spiegel interview with Iran's foreign minister. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded on Sunday by tweeting an excerpt from the interview with Der Spiegel published on Friday, where he said Iran is still open to negotiations with America if sanctions are lifted.

• Iranian FM: Tehran still willing to negotiate with US

  Associated Press
• Reuters World News Summary

  Reuters

China stiffens its defences against epidemic as death toll hits 56

China on Sunday expanded drastic travel restrictions to contain a viral epidemic that has killed 56 people and infected nearly 2,000, as the United States, France and Japan prepared to evacuate their citizens from a quarantined city at the outbreak's epicentre. China has locked down the hard-hit province of Hubei in the country's centre in an unprecedented operation affecting tens of millions of people to slow the spread of the respiratory illness. The previously unknown virus has caused global concern because of its similarity to the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) pathogen, which killed hundreds across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

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  Coronavirus: Canada confirms first case, as death toll rises to 56

  The Independent
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  Coronavirus: China virus death toll jumps to 41

  The Independent

A 62-year-old Chinese doctor in Wuhan 'at the front line' of the coronavirus outbreak has died after treating patients

Chinese state media confirmed that 62-year-old doctor in Wuhan died after treating patients infected with the deadly coronavirus that has killed 41 people and infected nearly 1,300. Liang Wudong was an ENT specialist at Hubei Xinhau Hospital in Wuhan, China who retired in March 2019, and "had been at the front line" of the coronavirus outbreak, China Global Television Network reports. Local medical staff in Wuhan have been overburdened by coronavirus patients, with some doctors wearing adult diapers because they don't have time to go to the bathroom.

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  Japan: Flight readied for Japanese to come home from Wuhan

  Associated Press
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  Drone Footage Shows Speedy Construction of New Hospital in Wuhan

  Storyful

Female prisoner dies after guards ‘did not stop her being beaten with soap bars’

A female prisoner died after guards did not intervene while she was being beaten with a sock filled with bars of soap, it is claimed in a lawsuit set to be heard in the US. Nicole Rathmann was attacked by another inmate as she lay on her bunk at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. But prison wardens allegedly allowed the beating to happen without intervening.

To Combat the Soviets, the U.S. Almost Built Its Own "Skyfall" Nuclear Powered Missile

Key Point: Thankfully, Washington decided the weapon would not be necessary in the Cold War standoff. After days of speculation by Western analysts that a deadly accident on August 8 that briefly spiked radiation levels in northwestern Russia was tied to tests of an exotic nuclear-powered “Skyfall” nuclear-powered cruise missile, Russian sources confirmed to the New York Times the explosion of a “small nuclear reactor. While there's a tactical rationale behind Russia's development of a fast, surface-skimming cruise missile with an unlimited range as a means of bypassing American missile defenses, it strikes many analysts as an inordinately expensive, extremely technically challenging, and—ev...

Racist threats rattle students, faculty at university

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Three months after a set of anonymous, threatening, racist, antisemitic and homophobic emails sent a wave of fear through the sociology department at Wake Forest University, the department chairman says he's still waiting for university leaders to announce a meaningful response. Alarmed by what he deemed white supremacist terrorism, chairman Joseph Soares canceled sociology classes for a week. When they resumed, Wake Forest police officers were stationed outside classrooms and the building itself.