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

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.

ICE ups ante in standoff with NYC: 'This is not a request'

Federal authorities are turning to a new tactic in the escalating conflict over New York City's so-called sanctuary policies, issuing four “immigration subpoenas” to the city for information about inmates wanted for deportation. This is not a request — it's a demand,” Henry Lucero, a senior U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, told The Associated Press. This is a last resort for us.

Japan Planned to Attack Pearl Harbor (Yes, Again)

Key point: Japan should not have antagonized America. At 7:45 AM on the morning of December 7, 1941 Commander Mitsuo Fuchida gazed exultantly from the rear seat of his B5N bomber at the serene vision of Pearl Harbor below him, it's defenses unprepared for the onslaught about to befall them. Upon returning safely to the deck of the carrier Akagi, he and classmate Commander Minoru Genda—the raid's mastermind—then urged Admiral Chuichi Nagumo to authorize a third wave to finish off the already crippled defenses.

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  New US aircraft carrier to be named after Pearl Harbor hero Doris Miller

  FOX News Videos
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  Aircraft carrier to be named after Pearl Harbor hero

  CBS News Videos

Body of woman who was missing for almost 6 years found in car submerged in NJ river

SALEM, N.J. – A body found in a submerged car here Thursday was a New Jersey woman reported missing almost six years ago. Vanessa Smallwood, who was 46 at the time of her disappearance, was identified in a statement from New Jersey State Police. Smallwood was a Maple Shade resident, according to the statement.

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.

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.

Prince Harry banned from wearing military uniform after stepping back from armed forces

Harry, Duke of Sussex, will be barred from wearing his military uniform after he agreed to step back from his armed forces appointments.

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  Prince Harry Admits "Great Sadness" At Quitting Royal Family

  Esquire
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  Prince Harry arrives at Africa Investment Summit in London

  Reuters Videos

You Should Get an Electric Fireplace

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

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 rises as Libya declares force majeure in oilfields

  Reuters
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  Libya’s Oil Output Plunges as Cease-Fire Talks Come Up Short

  Bloomberg

Impeachment managers say Trump is a danger to national security

House impeachment managers submitted a 100-page brief Saturday arguing that the case for removing President Trump from office is clear. In a statement with the brief, the managers said the evidence against him is "overwhelming," asserting that the president "abused the power of his office to solicit foreign interference in our elections for his own personal political gain, thereby jeopardizing our national security, the integrity of our elections, and our democracy." In the brief, the managers argue that Mr. Trump's "conduct is the Framers' worst nightmare," and say that the president "abandoned his oath to faithfully execute the laws and betrayed his public trust."

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  Trump impeachment: Defence lawyer insists abuse of power not enough to remove president

  The Independent
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  In impeachment document, Democrats say Trump endangers security, Trump denies

  Reuters

Illegal crossings plunge as US extends policy across border

Adolfo Cardenas smiles faintly at the memory of traveling with his 14-year-old son from Honduras to the U.S.-Mexico border in only nine days, riding buses and paying a smuggler $6,000 to ensure passage through highway checkpoints. Father and son walked about 10 minutes in Arizona's stifling June heat before surrendering to border agents. Instead of being released with paperwork to appear in immigration court in Dallas, where Cardenas hopes to live with a cousin, they were bused more than an hour to wait in the Mexican border city of Mexicali.

Evacuation crackdown ordered as Philippine volcano 'recharges'

Philippine authorities ordered a crackdown Monday on evacuees' daily visits to their homes in the danger zone around Taal volcano as scientists warned it could be "recharging" for a more powerful explosion. More than 110,000 people have taken refuge in evacuation centres since Taal burst to life a week ago, but many hard-hit towns have let residents back for hours each day to fetch items, feed livestock and clean up their houses. "We are directing DRRMCs (civil defence officers)... not to allow anyone to enter the danger zone," said Epimaco Densing, undersecretary for the Department of Interior.

Fox News' Chris Wallace says Lindsey Graham's view on impeachment witnesses 'directly contradicts' his 1999 position

Fox News' Chris Wallace pointed out Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-S.C.) updated view on witnesses in a Senate impeachment trial, but Graham swore the situation is now different. House Democrats say "evidence overwhelmingly establishes" Trump's guilt ahead of his Senate impeachment trial, set to begin arguments on Tuesday.

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  Trump calls Democrats ‘lunatics’ for impeachment

  ABC News Videos
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  Trump impeachment: Defence lawyer insists abuse of power not enough to remove president

  The Independent

NYT Splits Presidential Endorsement for First Time in History, Backing Klobuchar and Warren

The New York Times editorial board announced Sunday evening that it would endorse two candidates for president for the first time in the newspaper's history: Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota received the paper's support. The paper's endorsement of Warren, senator from Massachusetts, and Klobuchar, senator from Minnesota, comes just two weeks before the Iowa caucuses on February 3. The Times remarked that the similarities between the platforms of progressive Democrats, embodied by Warren, and more moderate Democrats like Klobuchar became “striking” during the course of their interviews and influenced the paper's decision to embrace candidates who embody both flanks of the party.

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  Iowa Newspaper Endorses Amy Klobuchar After Backing Bernie Sanders In 2016

  HuffPost
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  New York Times Endorses Both Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren for 2020 Democratic Primary

  The Wrap

Iran says it will examine the plane it shot down domestically — but a national air safety director admitted that the agency hasn't been able to open black boxes previously

Reuters An accident investigation director for the Iranian government told state media on Jan. 19 that the downed plane's black boxes will be examined domestically. That refutes a statement he made to state media the previous day — that Iran was unable to investigate the black box alone and that Iran would send the black box to Ukraine, where investigators from France, Canada, and the US would assist in the inspection. On Jan. 8, two missiles brought down Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752.

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  Iran aims to examine downed plane's black boxes, no plan yet to send them abroad

  Reuters
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  Bodies of Ukrainian victims of downed plane repatriated from Iran

  AFP

'I stayed alive to tell' - Auschwitz's dwindling survivors recount horrors of Nazi death camp

A strip of skin tattooed with the Auschwitz death camp number 99288 sits in a silver frame on a shelf in Avraham Harshalom's living room. As the 75th anniversary of the camp's liberation on Jan 27, 1945, nears, Harshalom, 95, is very clear about why he kept it. Harshalom is one of some 200,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel today.

China Thinks It Can Nuke American Cities. Should We Worry?

Key Point: Despite the developments related above, the balance of opinion in Beijing seems impressively moderate on the prospects for a major nuclear buildup by China. When one reads enough Chinese naval literature, diagrams of multi-axial cruise missile saturation attacks against aircraft carrier groups may begin to seem normal. Targets include the biggest cities on the East and West Coasts, as well as in the Midwest, as one would expect.

Trump's Russia adviser 'escorted from White House' amid investigation

President Trump's latest Russia expert has reportedly been escorted from the White House amid claims of a security-related investigation.

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  White House adviser on Russian and European matters put on administrative leave

  MarketWatch
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  Trump's Russia adviser was escorted from the White House after 2 months on the job, as part of a mysterious security probe

  Business Insider

Trump leaves for Mar-a-Lago for the weekend

President Trump is spending the weekend at his resort in Florida before the Senate impeachment trial begins "in earnest" Tuesday, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has put it. The president has said he'll "probably" still go to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, next week. If he attends the forum, he'll be out of the country when opening statements are expected to begin on Tuesday.

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  Trump's impeachment legal team to include Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz

  USA TODAY
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  Robert Ray says President Trump's defense team does not believe impeachment witnesses are appropriate

  FOX News Videos

Pair of storms to unleash rain, snow across Middle East this week

More unsettled weather is set to grip the Middle East this week after several storms have battered the region in recent weeks. The first of two storms to impact the area this week has dampened locations from the Mediterranean coast to Iraq on Monday. The steadiest rainfall is expected from northern Israel and Lebanon into southern Syria and central Iraq.

Bernie Sanders says gender is 'obstacle' for women in politics following Elizabeth Warren row

Bernie Sanders says sexism, racism, homophobia and ageism continue to impact the political process as US voters determine which presidential campaign to support despite the electorate moving "very significantly in trying to look at candidates based on what they stand for." Asked in an interview with New Hampshire public radio whether he believes if "gender is still an obstacle for female politicians", the Vermont Senator — who remains the front-runner ahead of that state's primary on 11 February — said yes, noting that "everybody has their own sets of problems" in the eyes of voters taking gender, or age, or sexuality into account.

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  Warren joins Bernie in jabbing Biden on Social Security

  Politico
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  Rep. Pramila Jayapal, A Leading Progressive, Endorses Bernie Sanders For President

  HuffPost

The US Air Force recently acquired a new $64 million Gulfstream private jet for VIP government officials — see inside

Kentavist Brackin/DVIDS/US Air Force The US Air Force's 89th Airlift Wing provides travel for top government employees including the President of the United States The wing primarily uses a fleet of modified civilian aircraft including the Boeing 747-200 used as Air Force One. Its newest aircraft, a military variant of a Gulfstream G550, was delivered to Joint Base Andrews in December Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. The US Air Force operates a VIP transportation system for the government's top employees.