Republican senator on Trump soliciting foreign interference: 'Things happen'

Republican Sen. Richard Shelby defended an argument from President Trump's legal team that soliciting foreign interference in an election is not an impeachable offense, saying, “things happen. When asked if Trump's months-long campaign to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political rival was improper, the Alabama senator told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's “This Week,” “Well, I don't know that has been actually proven. That's all in dispute, of what happened, whether the Russians were involved in it, whether Ukrainians involved in it, who was involved in it and to what extent,” Shelby continued.

Bloomberg pledges $70 billion to bolster black America in new plan

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will announce on Sunday his presidential campaign's plan aimed at bolstering economic opportunity for black Americans, promising to triple their income over the next decade, but stopping short of promising reparations. Bloomberg's “Greenwood Initiative” plan is named after the Greenwood District, otherwise known as “Black Wall Street,” a Tulsa neighborhood that was once considered one of the most economically prosperous black communities in the U.S. The neighborhood was the center of a deadly two-day attack by a white mob during the 1920s. Ninety-nine years later, Bloomberg will announce his plan in the same district.

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  'My story might have turned out very differently if I had been black': Michael Bloomberg

  ABC News
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  Bloomberg says his life would be different "if I had been black"

  CBS News

Five die in Russian hotel after boiling water floods basement

Five people, including one child, were killed in the Russian city of Perm on Monday when a hot water pipe exploded in the night and flooded a basement hotel room with boiling water. At least three other people were taken to hospital with burns after the incident in the Mini Hotel Caramel, which is located in the basement of a residential building, the region's investigative committee said. A doctor treating the victims, Andrei Babikov, said a 33-year-old woman had burns covering 35% of her body.

Leopard runs into house before being captured in south India

A leopard that ran into a house and sparked a frantic search and a frenzy of attention in southern India on Monday has been caught and tranquilized. The big cat emerged from the Kamdanam forest and ran into a house in Shadnagar town in Telangana state, said Dr. Mohammad Abdul Hakeem, a wildlife official. After people were evacuated from the immediate area, wildlife officials worked to catch the animal and residents swarmed to watch and snap photos.

Watch live: SpaceX is about to blow up a rocket in a crucial test to show NASA that its spaceship ready to launch astronauts

SpaceX plans to complete a crucial safety test this weekend to show NASA its Crew Dragon capsule is ready to carry astronauts to space. Coverage should start about 15 minutes before 10:30 a.m. ET, weather permitting, though SpaceX has until 2 p.m. ET to launch. The aerospace company, founded by Elon Musk, plans to shut off the rocket in mid-flight to simulate an emergency.

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  SpaceX Launches and Destroys Rocket to Demonstrate Safety System

  Storyful
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  SpaceX could catch future Crew Dragons with astronauts onboard using ships at sea

  TechCrunch

Archie's future: Rubbing shoulders with well-heeled expats at international school rather than Eton?

The seventh in line to the throne is simply 'Master' Archie. After the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's decision to quit The Firm and relocate to Canada, questions have been raised about the young child's future. Already there is disquiet inside Buckingham Palace, with the Queen upset that Archie has not even been in the country for the last two months, missing out on his first Royal Christmas at Sandringham.

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  Prince Charles Reportedly Plans to Financially Support Meghan and Harry

  InStyle
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  Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Named Harry’s Childhood Nanny As Archie’s Godmother

  Marie Claire

Virginia on edge as pro-gun activists seethe over governor’s state of emergency

What started in November as a fight between rural Virginia gun owners and newly elected Democratic lawmakers seeking to propose gun control legislation has since been warped and amplified by extremist groups which, for different reasons, have sought to exploit real tensions around Virginia's gun debate to advance their own agendas. Over the last two months, these groups have wielded unsubstantiated rumors and fake news reports to promote conspiracy theories about a Democratic plot to forcibly confiscate guns. Such theories have successfully fueled outrage and helped amplify rhetoric online.

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  Thousands Of Pro-Gun Activists And Far-Right Extremists Swarm Richmond, Virginia

  HuffPost
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  Tensions Are High, Some Protesters Are Showing Up Armed. Here’s What to Know About the Pro-Gun Rally in Richmond, Virginia

  Meredith Videos

China's Navy Warships Are Now Armed With Land-Attack Missiles

China says its newest destroyer is capable of launching land-attack missiles. The Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile has been a favorite tool of U.S. foreign policy and warfighting for 30 years, fired at everything from military bases in Iraq and Syria, to a failed 1998 attempt to kill Osama Bin Laden at his Afghan lair. Russia also has used them: in 2015, Russia fired Kalibr cruise missiles at Syrian rebels from warships stationed a thousand miles away in the Caspian Sea, in a demonstration of the long arm of the Kremlin.

Intelligence officials: New ISIS leader is one of its founding members

The Islamic State's new leader is Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli al-Salbi, one of the terrorist organization's founding members, intelligence officials told The Guardian. Last October, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a raid in Syria, and officials said Salbi replaced him just hours after his death. Born to an Iraqi Turkmen family, Salbi has a background as an Islamic scholar, and came up with the ISIS religious rulings authorizing the enslavement of Iraq's Yazidi minority.

Biden campaign warns media against spreading Trump misinformation

Joe Biden's campaign issued a memo to media outlets on Monday warning them against spreading “false accusations” driven by President Donald Trump and Republicans against the former vice president. The memo, released a day before the start of Trump's Senate impeachment trial, says there is “no evidence” for disproven claims pushed by the president that Biden sidelined a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating an energy company that his son, Hunter, held a high-paid position with. Trump pushed a “a malicious and conclusively debunked conspiracy theory” about Biden, deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield and senior campaign adviser Tony Blinken wrote.

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  Rep. warns not electing progressive could lead to another Trump

  CBS News
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  Biden’s Social Security Heresy

  The Wall Street Journal

Climate crisis could justify asylum claims: UN committee

Governments that send refugees back to countries severely affected by climate change could be in breach of their human rights obligations, a UN committee said on Monday. The independent experts on the Human Rights Committee issued a non-binding but closely watched ruling in a case brought by Ioane Teitiota from the Pacific island nation of Kiribati. Several Pacific island nations including Kiribati are seen as among the most vulnerable in the world to climate change as they are just a few metres above sea level.

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  Landmark UN ruling bans countries from returning refugees to nations threatened by climate crisis

  The Independent
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  Climate change could create new refugee claims, UN says

  The Telegraph

Cult slayed pregnant woman and five of her children in Panama

A religious sect whose members believed to be “anointed by God” forced a pregnant woman and five of her children to walk through fire as part of a cult ritual, according to local residents.

You Should Get an Electric Fireplace

Who couldn't use a little more ambiance? Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

Ex-Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line workers reveal the things they couldn't live without on board

The workers' former employers were Carnival Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, and American Cruise Lines. A cruise ship is an unusual work environment, keeping employees away from their homes for months at a time. Six former cruise-ship workers told Business Insider what they couldn't live without during their contracts.

Haftar chokes off oil Libya's oil production as fighting continues

Despite the fierce fighting between Mr Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army and the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), both sides have generally allowed oil production and export to continue. But in apparent bid to put pressure on the GNA, forces loyal to Mr Haftar have closed ports in the eastern part of the country and shut down a pipeline to two major oil fields in the southwest, effectively choking off oil production. The National Oil Corporation estimates that output will plummet from 1.2 million barrels per day to just 72,000 barrels per day in a few days' time if Mr Haftar does not release his grip on the ports and pipeline.

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  Oil prices fall nearly 1% as supply concerns ease

  Reuters
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  Erdogan says hopes for 'important step' in Libya talks

  AFP

2 more Puerto Rico officials fired after warehouse break-in

Gov. Wanda Vázquez fired the heads of Puerto Rico's housing and family departments Sunday in the latest fallout over the discovery of a warehouse filled with emergency supplies dating from Hurricane Maria. The removal of Housing Secretary Fernando Gil and Department of Family Secretary Glorimar Andújar came a day after the governor fired the director of Puerto Rico's emergency management agency. Vázquez fired him hours after a Facebook video showed angry people breaking into the warehouse in an area where thousands have been in shelters since a recent earthquake.

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  Puerto Ricans call for resignation of governor after Hurricane Maria supplies found in warehouse

  WPVI – Philadelphia
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  Puerto Rican official fired after warehouse discovered with supplies from 2017

  ABC News Videos

Could Taiwan Stop an Invasion By China?

Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen's January 2020 re-election could signal another four years of stiff defiance to Chinese aggression for the island country. “In her first term, President Tsai Ing-wen secured more than $10 billion in high-profile U.S. weapons to defend Taiwan against China,” Marlow wrote. During her first term, the staunchly pro-independence Tsai worked hard to secure from the United States deals for weaponry worth more than $10 billion, including 60 new F-16 fighters and 108 M-1A2 tanks.

Philippine volcano recharging, scientist says, as shops, hotels told to keep shut

A restive volcano in the Philippines has a high risk of eruption as it is "recharging" with fresh magma and rising emissions of toxic gas, a top scientist said on Monday, while authorities ordered commercial establishments to stay shut. Earthquakes were still happening at the Taal volcano, which shot giant clouds of ash miles into the air on Jan. 12, and levels of the gas were rising, a sign of magma "recharging" and "resupplying" beneath it, a Philippine vulcanologist said. "If it reaches the crater, it could cause a strong explosion," Renato Solidum, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), told DZMM radio.

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  Evacuees pray for safety at Sunday mass amid Philippine volcano threat

  Reuters
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  Alaska volcano spews thick ash cloud, triggering aviation warning

  Reuters

Sanders Campaign Touts Op-Ed on Biden’s ‘Corruption Problem’ ahead of Impeachment Trial

The Bernie Sanders campaign circulated an op-ed on Monday highlighting “the transactional, grossly corrupt culture” of former vice president Joe Biden's record, just one day before the Senate begins its impeachment trial over President Trump's alleged attempts to force Ukraine to investigate Biden. A “Bern Notice” email sent by the campaign highlights a Guardian op-ed written by Fordham Law professor and Sanders supporter Zephyr Teachout, which warns that “Biden has a big corruption problem and it makes him a weak candidate.

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  Trump Legal Team Calls on Congress to ‘Swiftly Reject’ the ‘Rigged’ Impeachment Process in New Filing

  National Review
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  How Trump's impeachment trial may compare to the ones for Johnson and Clinton

  CBS News Videos

Dan Bongino responds to video of mob attacking Baltimore officer: I blame the political leaders

A video posted on social media shows a Baltimore police sergeant repeatedly kicked by bystanders while trying to make an arrest; reaction from Fox News contributor Dan Bongino, former NYPD officer.

Ten killed in seating collapse at Ethiopian festival

At least ten people were killed Monday and scores injured when a seating area collapsed during a major Orthodox Christian celebration in Ethiopia, with fears the death toll could rise. The accident occurred just before 8am (0500 GMT) Monday in Gondar, a historic city in the country's north, where every year more than a million people gather for the epiphany festivities known as Timkat. Two doctors at the University of Gondar Hospital told AFP that 10 people died when the spectator stands gave way suddenly at Fasilides' Bath, where thousands typically gather to watch worshippers plunge into the holy waters.

John Roberts Has More Power Than Mitch McConnell Would Like You to Think. But Will He Use It?

The Constitution is, in many respects, vague. At the time of drafting of the Constitution, the colonists were still recovering from a bitter eight-year war for independence, in which their adversary was the armed forces of the British King George III — the tyrannical monarch who had stripped them of their right to self-government. One of the checks in this balance was to give the legislature the power to remove the any member of the executive branch, including the President, by impeachment.

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  New poll on the eve of Trump's impeachment trial finds that 51% of Americans think he should be removed from office

  Business Insider
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  Senate Democrats push for new witness testimony in impeachment trial

  FOX News Videos

Facebook blames a 'technical issue' for the vulgar translation of Xi Jinping's name

Thomas Peter/Getty Facebook on Saturday apologized for mis-translating Chinese President Xi Jinping's name to "Mr. Shithole" in posts on the site translated from Burmese to English. The translation error was first discovered in an official Facebook post about Xi's meeting with Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

El Chapo 701 craft lager coming soon thanks to drug lord's daughter

The mug shot of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, imprisoned leader of the ruthless Sinaloa Cartel, is not just for police blotters anymore. A Mexican company run by Alejandrina Guzman Salazar, the drug lord's daughter, is awaiting government approval to start selling El Chapo Mexican Lager. Adriana Ituarte, a salesperson for the brand, told the Latin American media site Remezcla the beer is 4% alcohol, made from malt, rice and honey.

Panama begins exhumation of victims from 1989 US invasion

Forensic workers took preliminary steps Monday for digging up the remains of some victims of the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, an effort that has lifted the hopes of Panamanians who had relatives die or disappear and have lived with unanswered questions about their fate for 30 years. Authorities gave the approval for exhumation of the 19 bodies buried in a Panama City cemetery after a truth commission set up three years ago documented about 20 disappearances from the U.S. military action to topple strongman Manuel Noriega. Prosecutor Maribel Caballero told reporters the remains will be compared to a database of DNA from relatives in 14 cases.