Impeachment trial fallout: Trump could get his wish — to hurt Biden

But the fallout could complicate life for Trump's leading Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, in the days and weeks ahead — which is exactly what Trump was trying to do when he first launched his Ukraine scheme last summer. As the all-important Iowa caucuses approach, the former vice president appears, at first glance, to be in better shape than his main rivals for the Democratic nomination. Though a new CNN poll shows Bernie Sanders narrowly pulling ahead of Biden for the first time, every other poll released so far this year shows Biden maintaining his longtime national lead by anywhere from 5 to 11 percentage points.

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  Trump is teasing that he could make an awkward, unscheduled appearance at his own impeachment trial

  Business Insider
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  Where Senators Get Their Sugar Fix During the Impeachment Trial

  The New York Times

Ghislaine Maxwell: Hackers 'breached' computer belonging to Jeffrey Epstein associate, attorney says

Lawyers for the woman accused of procuring underage girls to have sex with Jeffrey Epstein told a judge that hackers “breached” her computer after a court failed to redact her email address in filings it released last year. Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyer Ty Gee said in a December letter to Judge Loretta A Preska that, “despite the Second Circuit's best efforts, it made serious mistakes” when redacting thousands of pages of records associated with a defamation lawsuit filed by one of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Giuffre. Ms Giuffre's 2015 lawsuit argued that Ms Maxwell publicly called her a liar for claiming that the British socialite approached her at the age of 15 and encouraged her to sleep with the convicted sex offender.

• Jeffrey Epstein pal Ghislaine Maxwell's emails hacked

  Fox Business
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  Rumors paint picture of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged actions on private island

  CBS News Videos

Spirit Airlines passenger: Cabin crew didn't take my groping allegation seriously

The FBI is investigating a Michigan woman's claim that she was sexually assaulted aboard a Spirit Airlines flight by a man sitting next to her. The woman said the flight attendants took the alleged assault lightly – asking her to move her seat, but not making that same request of him. Spirit Airlines, however, said its crew did all that it could to assist the woman, offered to move her but that she refused, so everyone had to stay put – including the alleged attacker – as the plane was about to land.

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  Michigan Woman Says She Was Sexually Assaulted on a Spirit Airlines Flight: 'Women Are Not Safe'

  People
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  Man Inappropriately Touches Fellow Female Passenger on Spirit Airlines Flight

  TheBlast

A University of Minnesota student was arrested in China and sentenced to 6 months in prison for tweeting cartoons making fun of President Xi Jingping

Luo Daiqing, 20, was arrested in Wuhan, China, in July after posting tweets critical of the government while he was studying in the US, according to court documents Axios obtained. The University of Minnesota student was sentenced to six months in prison in November. A University of Minnesota student was arrested in China and sentenced to six months in prison for posting tweets critical of the government, Axios reported Wednesday.

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  Court Sentences Chinese University of Minnesota Student to Six Months in Prison for Anti-Regime Tweets

  National Review
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  China Student’s Jailing for U.S. Tweets Shows Beijing’s Reach

  Bloomberg

Macron berates Israeli security men in tussle at Jerusalem church

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - "Go outside," French President Emmanuel Macron demanded in English in a melee with Israeli security men on Wednesday, demanding they leave a Jerusalem basilica that he visited before a Holocaust memorial conference. The French tricolor has flown over the Church of St. Anne in Jerusalem's walled Old City since it was gifted by the Ottomans to French Emperor Napoleon III in 1856. France views it as a provocation when Israeli police enter the church's sandstone complex, in a part of Jerusalem captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

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  Israel to push Iran concerns during Holocaust memorial

  AFP
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  Macron Says Trump Will Take New Wine Tariffs Off the Table Until 2021

  Meredith Videos

REI’s January Sale Offers 50% off Cold-Weather Outdoor Gear

Save big on Patagonia, The North Face, Columbia, and more of our favorite outdoor brands. From Popular Mechanics

Successor to slain Iran general will be murdered if he kills Americans: U.S. envoy

The successor to the Iranian commander killed in a U.S. drone strike would suffer the same fate if he followed a similar path by killing Americans, the U.S. special representative for Iran said, according to the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

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  Masked gunmen kill local commander of Iran's security forces

  Associated Press
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  Iran Says Drone Used in Soleimani Strike Came From Kuwait

  Bloomberg

Saudi crown prince's WhatsApp linked to Bezos phone hack

The cellphone of Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos was hacked in what appeared to be an attempt by Saudi Arabia's crown prince to "influence, if not silence" the newspaper's reporting on the kingdom, two U.N. human rights experts said Wednesday. The U.N. experts called for an “immediate investigation” by the United States into a report commissioned by Bezos that showed the billionaire technology mogul's phone was likely hacked after he received an MP4 video file sent from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's WhatsApp account after the two men exchanged phone numbers during a dinner in Los Angeles in 2018.

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  The Jeff Bezos phone hack proves anyone can fall victim to cybersecurity attacks. But here's what security experts say you can do to reduce the risk.

  Business Insider
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  Saudi Arabia dismisses claim it hacked Jeff Bezos

  CBS News Videos

Impeachment trial grinds on, testing physical endurance of senators

After keeping the august members of the U.S. Senate in their seats for roughly 18 of the previous 30 hours, Adam Schiff told the group of not-so-young lawmakers that he and a fellow impeachment manager had just over two hours more to go Wednesday night. But Schiff, a Democratic congressman from California who is leading the impeachment effort, acknowledged that it had been a grueling day and a half. As an encouraging voice told me, keep it up but don't keep it up too long.

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  Adam Schiff Opens Impeachment Trial Quoting Alexander Hamilton

  Rolling Stone
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  Joe Biden won't testify in Trump's impeachment trial even it means John Bolton will

  The Week

The brazen (and careless) Russian assassination team behind the Salisbury poisonings has been spotted in Europe, again

PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA New images have been published of the Russian GRU assassination team working in Europe. A video from a case in Bulgaria shows a man connected to the 2015 poisoning of an arms dealer. The suspects in the Bulgarian poisoning are believed to be part of the same Russian unit that conducted the poison attack on Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England.

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  Bulgaria Charges Three Russians in Skripal-Linked Investigation

  Bloomberg
• Bulgaria charges three Russians over poisoning possibly linked to Skripal case

  Reuters

Authorities say Oklahoma man was eaten by mountain lions in Arizona

The human remains three mountain lions feasted on when authorities found them last month belong to an Oklahoma man who went missing in early December, authorities said Tuesday. The Pima County Sheriff's Department said in a news release that the victim was 66-year-old Steven Mark Brashear of Bartlesville. Brashear left Bartlesville on Dec. 7 and was reported missing to Oro Valley police in December.

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  Brave Dad Saves His Son From a Mountain Lion

  Inside Edition CBS
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  Home Security Camera Captures Family of Mountain Lions on Northern California Property

  Storyful

China's New H-20 Stealth Bomber Is Going To Shake Up East Asia

If the H-20 does have the range and passable stealth characteristics attributed to it, it could alter the strategic calculus between the United States and China by exposing U.S. bases and fleets across the Pacific to surprise air attacks. Only three countries have both the imperative and the resources to develop huge strategic bombers that can strike targets across the globe: the United States, Russia and China. Strategic bombers make sense for China because Beijing perceives dominance of the western half of the Pacific Ocean as essential for its security due to its history of maritime invasion, and the challenge posed by the United States in particular.

Man in Mexico Now Ill After Visiting Coronavirus Ground Zero

A man who fell ill in Mexico on Monday following a December trip to Wuhan, China, is under observation as a potential case of the coronavirus, the respiratory virus that has killed at least 17 people worldwide. The 57-year-old molecular biology professor works for the Instituto Politecnico Nacional university in the city of Reynosa, which borders with the U.S. The man returned to Mexico on Jan. 10 through a Mexico City airport and then flew to the state of Tamaulipas, Mexican authorities said. Tamaulipas State Health Minister Gloria Molina said in a radio interview that the man immediately reported his situation to authorities after feeling sick.

1 Killed, 7 Wounded, Including 9-Year-Old, in Shooting in Downtown Seattle. Here's What to Know

One person is dead and seven others were injured, including a 9-year-old boy, after multiple gunmen opened fire following a dispute in a crowded shopping district in downtown Seattle on Wednesday. A 50-year-old woman was in critical condition at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center, and the child boy was in “very serious condition,” according to Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins. The fire department transported five patients to Harborview and two more arrived at the hospital later.

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  Woman killed, man critically wounded in Long Beach shooting, suspect in custody

  KABC – Los Angeles
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  Seattle shooting leaves 1 dead, suspects at large

  Reuters Videos

4 killed in plane crash at Southern California airport

Four people were killed when a small plane crashed at the Corona Municipal Airport in California, authorities said Wednesday. The plane then crashed through a fence and hit a barrier to the east of the airport. "He [the pilot] didn't pull back and he was too fast on the runways," pilot Dorothy Voll, who witnessed the crash, told CBS LA.

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  Small plane crashes in Calif., 4 reported dead

  Associated Press Videos
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  4 killed after plane crashes, catches fire near Corona Municipal Airport, authorities say

  WLS – Chicago

Leading white nationalist accused of threats on message app

A leading white nationalist has been indicted and arrested on federal charges that he threatened to rape the wife of a person with whom he was having a dispute. Christopher Cantwell, a New Hampshire resident who rose to prominence in 2017 after a violent rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, is accused of using the Telegram messaging app to make the threat on June 16, 2019. Cantwell pleaded guilty in 2018 to assault after he was accused of using pepper spray against two counterprotesters during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in 2017.

Relax, Democrats: your nominee will beat Trump in the midwest

A poll one week shows Sanders on top in Iowa. A week later, another poll finds Biden leading, with Amy Klobuchar in the double digits. Warren, Sanders and Klobuchar are confined to the Senate with two weekends left to campaign ahead of the 3 February caucuses.

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  Surrogates unleashed: Tied to Trump trial, candidates deploy stand-ins

  AFP
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  Impeachment trial brings angst for 4 presidential hopefuls

  Associated Press

The US plans to force passengers to change routes, and potentially redirect entire flights, to make sure they get screened for the Wuhan virus

US officials unveiled an ambitious plan to make sure anybody flying from Wuhan, China, to the US goes through screening for a virus sweeping the region. The plans include a vast "funnel" system to reroute individual fliers — and potentially whole planes — to one of 5 airports screening for the so-called Wuhan virus. The US is making plans to force passengers from Wuhan, China, to change flights — and even reroute flights entirely if necessary — to ensure they get screened for the coronavirus spreading throughout the Chinese city.

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  Wuhan, China, and 5 other cities have been quarantined as China attempts to halt the spread of the coronavirus. That's about 23 million people on lockdown.

  Business Insider
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  Everything You Need to Know About the Wuhan Coronavirus

  Popular Mechanics

Chief Justice John Roberts drops 'pettifogging' bomb while reprimanding both sides in impeachment trial

WASHINGTON – Chief Justice John Roberts admonished the House managers and the president's counsel after a fiery back and forth during the debate over amendments to a resolution outlining the rules and format of the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. Roberts reprimanded the panels amid an argument over whether former national security adviser John Bolton should be subpoenaed to testify before the Senate. To illustrate his point about the level of civility expected in the Senate, Roberts referred to an incident from the impeachment trial of Florida District Judge Charles Swayne in 1905, when one senator took issue with a House manager using the word "pettifogging" (which is an old-fashioned term for "worrying too much about details that are minor or unimportant," according to Merriam-Webster).

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  Let them speak: Most Americans want witnesses in Trump impeachment trial - Reuters/Ipsos poll

  Reuters
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  Republicans eager to hear Trump's side as Democrats argue for Trump's conviction – live updates

  USA TODAY

These 9 Dining Chairs Are Sculptural, Surprising, and Downright Sleek

The best chairs earn their place at the table Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Why France's Nuclear Weapons Still Matter

Key point: Paris wanted its own deterrent, both to protect itself and to keep France "great." Nuclear missile submarines also allowed France to leave NATO for a good number of years while remaining secure. France was the fourth country to join the so-called “Nuclear Club,” and at the height of the Cold War maintained its own nuclear triad of land-based missiles, nuclear-armed bombers and ballistic missile submarines. Today, France's sea-based nuclear deterrent is the home of most of its nuclear arsenal, with four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, of French design and construction, providing constant assurance against surprise nuclear attack.

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  China's First Nuclear Submarine Was a Flawed Creature

  The National Interest
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  Sailing These Russian Nuclear Submarines Was Basically A Suicide Mission

  The National Interest

U.S. Secretary of State cautions nations against taking 'easy money' from China

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a visit to Jamaica on Wednesday, cautioned nations against taking "easy money" from China, warning it could be counterproductive, in a second attack in as many days against China's economic role in the region. Pompeo has been a vocal critic of Chinese investments across the globe that the United States terms "debt diplomacy," alleging that it leaves poorer nations saddled with too much debt. On a final stop of his Western Hemisphere tour, Pompeo questioned what value Chinese money brings if it "feeds corruption and undermines your rule of law."

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  Pompeo talks Nicaragua after Florida Senate condemns Ortega

  Associated Press
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  Pompeo sits down with tech leaders at a private dinner

  Yahoo Finance Video

Kristin Smart: FBI tells mother of woman missing since 1996 to 'be ready' for developments

The mother of a California teenager who has been missing for more than 20 years says the FBI told her to "be ready" for imminent news about her disappearance. Hoping that police would finally be able to bring some closure to a seemingly endless investigation, Kristin Smart's mother Denise told the Stockton Record that the FBI warned that the family "might want to get away for a while" and obtain a spokesperson The FBI allegedly told her: "This is really going to be something you don't expect. We want to give you the support you need."