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(Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue signaled that a renewed transatlantic trade truce will require more ambitious European Union efforts to ease imports of American foods.Perdue criticized an idea being pursued by the bloc of a piecemeal accord that would scale back European regulatory barriers to individual American products such as shellfish, saying a U.S. farm-trade deficit with the EU of $10 billion to $12 billion was “unsustainable and unreasonable.”Instead, he said, Europe should reject the “political science of fear” over U.S. farm goods and ease market access for them in general.“We’re looking for real substance,” Perdue said from Rome on Thursday during a conference call with reporters. “It depends on recognizing international standards.”The comments challenge Europe’s better-safe-than-sorry approach to food safety -- a stance that has led to longstanding E...

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. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Ua7Gne via IFTTT

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. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2ObLZiG via IFTTT

Republicans won handily a closely watched special election Tuesday to keep hold of a suburban Houston district that President Trump won easily four years ago, fending off a national blitz by Democrats in a Texas legislative race. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/38QP5Aq via IFTTT

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. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2OapaMd via IFTTT

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Sales were up 20% over the festive season in sharp contrast to weakness at other retailers. from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2Ubwifk

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. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/38TEPaE via IFTTT

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 r...

ZURICH/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A humanitarian channel to bring food and medicine to Iran has started trial operations, the Swiss and U.S. governments said on Thursday, helping supply Swiss goods to the struggling population without tripping over U.S. sanctions. The Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA) seeks to ensure that Swiss-based exporters and trading companies in the food, pharmaceutical and medical sectors have a secure payment channel with a Swiss bank through which payments for their exports to Iran are guaranteed, a government statement said. Three shipments of cancer and transplant drugs have been sent to Iran through this channel and the transaction has been processed, U.S. Special Representative Brian Hook told a press briefing. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2vyeVuJ via IFTTT

The Bureau of Economic Analysis released the fourth-quarter U.S. GDP reported Thursday. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2UfnQM9 via IFTTT

Russian officials announced Thursday that 16 of 25 crossing points along the 2,600-mile Russia-China border will close by midnight on Friday. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37IJ4Wi via IFTTT

'I'm an old guy,' Biden admitted. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/316mHIb via IFTTT

House Manager Adam Schiff responded to President Trump's lawyer Alan Dershowitz on Wednesday. Dershowitz said that "If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment." from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2uIixtJ via IFTTT

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. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2UaFmkk via IFTTT

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. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/36BZBu6 via IFTTT

Asylum seekers sent to Mexico to wait US court hearings under Trump scheme routinely targeted for abduction, survey findsA staggering 80% of asylum seekers sent to Mexico to await US court hearings report being victims of violence, according a survey by Doctors Without Borders (MSF).In one month – October – three-quarters of asylum seekers seen by MSF physicians in Nuevo Laredo reported having been kidnapped for ransom, according to the figures released on Wednesday.Some 44% of MSF patients also reported having been victims of violence in the week leading up to their consultations.Wednesday marked the first anniversary of a scheme officially known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), under which migrants seeking asylum in the United States are sent to Mexico to wait as their cases wind their way through US courts.Under the scheme, also known as “remain in Mexico”, more than 57,000 non-Mexican asylum seekers have been sent to wait in cities along the border – many of which have been p...

Senators – including three key Republicans – began peppering House Democrats and Donald Trump's legal team with question in his impeachment trial about the president's motives towards Ukraine and the bar the prosecution's case must clear to remove him from office.The three GOP politicians, who will have a major say in the shape of the trial, after another day of questioning showed some of their cards right off the bat, with one of Mr Trump's attorneys telling them the premise of their query should lead them to acquit the president. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/38P49P5 via IFTTT

Senator Joe Manchin (D., W.V.) on Wednesday said he believes Hunter Biden may be a pertinent witness in the Senate impeachment trial."I think so, I really do," Manching said when asked on MSNBC's Morning Joe whether he thought the former vice president's son was a "relevant" witness. "I don't have a problem there because this is why we are where we are.""I think that he could clear himself from what I know and what I've heard," Manchin went on, "but being afraid to put anybody that might have pertinent information [on the witness stand] is wrong, whether you're Democrat or Republican."> .@WillieGeist asks @Sen_JoeManchin if Hunter Biden is a 'relevant witness.' Sen. Manchin responds: "I think so; I really do." pic.twitter.com/ZESiUMWTWc> > -- Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) January 29, 2020The Senate is currently entering the two-day question and answer phase of impeachment, after which it will ...

"It didn't happen during our period," a former Delta Force commander told Business Insider. "We really were severe about policing ourselves." from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2S1TQjQ via IFTTT

"Roof's crime was tragic, but this Court can have no confidence in the jury's verdict," says his appeal, filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. A jury found Roof guilty of 33 federal charges, including hate crimes resulting in death, for the shocking mass shooting at the landmark Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in June 2015. Roof dismissed his defense attorneys just before trial and represented himself during jury selection. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37NkSm1 via IFTTT

China demanded Monday that a major Danish newspaper, which angered Muslims worldwide by publishing drawings of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005, apologizes for a cartoon on the new virus outbreak in China. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37CqGhN via IFTTT

Lev Parnas’ attorney Joseph Bondy is set to attend the Senate impeachment trial tomorrow during the first day of the question-answer period. His co-counsel Stephanie Schuman is also expected to appear, The Daily Beast has learned.“Like many other New York constituents, Mr. Bondy reached out and asked for gallery tickets, and we said yes,” said Justin Goodman, a spokesperson for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the Senate Minority Leader.Bondy told The Daily Beast Tuesday that his client was also trying to attend tomorrow’s proceedings in the Senate trial but would be unlikely to be able to enter the chamber because he wears an ankle monitor. Senate rules bar individuals from bringing any electronics into the chamber during the trial. Tuesday evening, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken indeed modified Parnas' pretrial release to allow him to travel to Washington, but denied the removal of his monitor.Lev Parnas Dishes on Kushner, Maduro, and SorosParnas, a Florida businessman, worked with...

An Arizona court ruled that because the ex-husband does not want his ex-wife to have his biological children, the embryos must be donated. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37yyhxW via IFTTT

A case of the coronavirus was confirmed at Arizona State University on Sunday, and Asian students have felt backlash ever since. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/38QOQ8K via IFTTT

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 stor...

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. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2RXBq3T via IFTTT

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. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/30ZyDeF via IFTTT

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 ano...

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. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2tXIS75 via IFTTT

An actress-turned-costume designer told jurors in the Weinstein rape trial on Wednesday the former Hollywood producer promised her a movie deal if she had three-way sex with him and his assistant. from Reuters: U.S. https://ift.tt/36EAG9d via IFTTT

If you love The Daily Beast’s royal coverage, then we hope you’ll enjoy The Royalist, a members-only series for Beast Inside. Become a member to get The Royalist in your inbox every Sunday.Prince Andrew and the FBI were involved in a furious war of words Tuesday, after he denied claims made by the U.S. attorney for Manhattan, Geoffrey Berman, that he has refused to cooperate with American authorities investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse.Andrew said no request had been received, and he was ready to talk. However a spokesperson for Berman’s office told The Daily Beast they stood by the prosecutor’s comments, specifically the claim that they had “made several attempts to contact” Andrew’s representatives.Andrew, 59, however, was said to be “angry and bewildered,” according to The Daily Telegraph, at allegations made by Berman.On Monday, Berman called out Andrew for giving “zero co-operation” to the investigation into Epstein at a press conference held outside Epstein's...

(Bloomberg) -- Bernie Sanders has not only taken the lead in several recent surveys of voters in Iowa, which holds the first in the nation caucuses on Monday, but he has also pushed to the head of the Democratic field in delegate-rich California.The Vermont senator, who has had strong support from Latinos and young voters, has been propelled into the top spot by voters who self-identify as “very liberal,” according to the latest UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies poll, conducted for the Los Angeles Times.Sanders has support from 26% of voters likely to cast ballots in the state’s March 3 Democratic primary, drawing support from liberals largely at the expense of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. Warren is now backed by 20% of likely voters, which is down from earlier surveys showing she had 22% in November and 29% in September in the state.The rest of California’s likely primary voters remain divided among several candidates, which has left the party’s front-runner na...

A family of four Chinese tourists in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday became the first cases in the Mideast of a new Chinese virus that causes flu-like symptoms, with an Emirati doctor saying the first to fall ill only showed symptoms after over a week on vacation. Dr. Hussein al-Rand, an assistant undersecretary at the UAE's Ministry of Health and Prevention, told The Associated Press that there was no reason to panic over virus. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/36G3Zbz via IFTTT

Stunning NTSB drone footage shows a swath of devastation from the California helicopter crash that killed NBA star Kobe Bryant and eight others. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/36DUXM1 via IFTTT

British Airways halted all flights to China and American Airlines suspended Los Angeles flights to and from Shanghai and Beijing as efforts to contain a new virus intensifies. The coronavirus has now infected more people in China than were sickened in the country by the SARS outbreak in 2002-2003. Air India and South Korean budget carrier Seoul Air are also halting all flights to the country, and Indonesia’s Lion Air plans to do the same. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2t5Eoe7 via IFTTT

John Bolton has many times before been at the center of a maelstrom that is in good part of his own making. And each time, he has somehow emerged eager for more.  from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37vz4Qe via IFTTT

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. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2tXIS75 via IFTTT

The Pentagon on Wednesday released the names of two Air Force officers killed in the crash of their Bombardier E-11A electronic surveillance plane in Afghanistan. Voss was assigned to Air Combat Command headquarters at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. Phaneuf was assigned to the 37th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/312uc2K via IFTTT

In a New York Times interview, Joe Biden said that if millennials want to see a change in their economic situation, they need to get more involved. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3aNci8F via IFTTT

Symptoms can range from mild to severe, and at least one patient has reportedly showed no symptoms at all from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2U3RxQ1 via IFTTT

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough kicked off Tuesday’s edition of Morning Joe by going off on a lengthy and raucous rant against President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team, branding the whole group as a “Confederacy of Dunces.”After Monday’s arguments by the president’s legal squad featured a slew of Fox News regulars essentially rehashing their Hannity segments, Scarborough spent the first few minutes of MSNBC’s signature morning program blasting the most standout moments.“Well, I mean—you had Confederacy of Dunces defending him in impeachment,” Scarborough declared, referencing the famous irreverent novel by John Kennedy Toole. “Their arguments were absolutely stunning.”Taking aim at Jane Raskin’s insistence that Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani was only a “minor player” regarding Ukraine, the MSNBC star pointed out that Giuliani’s name was mentioned multiple times by Trump himself in his infamous July 25 call with the Ukrainian president.“Where do we begin with Ken Starr?” Scar...

(Bloomberg) -- Two indicted associates of Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani are battling over whether more evidence from their New York criminal case should be turned over to congressional Democrats pursuing the president’s impeachment, with federal prosecutors joining the fray.Lev Parnas has cultivated an unusually public role in recent weeks, granting national television interviews, giving evidence to Congress and offering to testify at the Senate trial of the president, who was impeached last month on charges including abuse of power. Parnas is doing all this while under indictment for breaking campaign finance law.It’s the third time Parnas has sought judicial approval to provide evidence to House impeachment managers. The request was opposed by Parnas’s co-defendants, who’ve kept a lower profile and who said the material could jeopardize their attorney-client privilege, as well as by federal prosecutors.The judge in the case has scheduled a hearing for Jan. 30.Parnas and co-defe...