TOP STORIES

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Monday, January 27

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BOLTON BOMBSHELL ROCKS IMPEACHMENT Former national security adviser John Bolton reportedly wrote in an outline for his book that President Donald Trump directly tied frozen Ukraine aid to his demand for the announcement of an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The claim contradicts Trump's impeachment defense and adds pressure on the GOP-controlled Senate to subpoena Bolton for the trial. [HuffPost]

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KOBE BRYANT DIES IN HELICOPTER CRASH NBA legend Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, on Sunday. The retired Los Angeles Laker was 41. His 13-year-old daughter Gianna was among the helicopter’s eight other passengers also killed. [HuffPost]

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5 WUHAN VIRUS CASES NOW CONFIRMED IN U.S. Two more people in the U.S. have tested positive for the deadly new coronavirus strain, bringing the total number across the country to five. Both new cases involve individuals, one in California and one in Arizona, who had traveled to Wuhan, China, where the virus is believed to have originated. [HuffPost]

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MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE KILLS DOZENS IN TURKEY Efforts to find survivors from a powerful earthquake in eastern Turkey have begun winding down as the death toll climbed to at least 39. The magnitude-6.8 quake shook Turkey's Elazig province late on Friday, causing buildings to collapse and injuring some 1,600 people. [Reuters]

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80 CONFIRMED DEAD FROM WUHAN VIRUS 80 people are dead and more than 2,700 cases have been confirmed in mainland China, as the Wuhan coronavirus continues to spread throughout Asia and the rest of the world. Nearly 60 million people have been affected by partial or full lockdowns in Chinese cities as the country's government steps up its response. [CNN]

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MULTIPLE ROCKETS CRASH NEAR U.S. EMBASSY IN BAGHDAD  Hundreds of anti-government protesters flooded the streets of Iraq’s capital and southern provinces on Sunday, defying a powerful Iraqi religious leader who recently withdrew his support from the popular movement. Separately, five katyusha rockets crashed into a river bank near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone without causing any injuries. [AP]

WHAT'S BREWING

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SCHIFF: TRUMP'S 'PAYING A PRICE' TWEET WAS A THREAT  Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the House Intelligence chair and lead impeachment manager, said a Trump tweet that the lawmaker has yet to have “paid the price” was intended as a threat. “This is a wrathful and vindictive president,” Schiff said. [HuffPost]

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TRUMP SUGGESTS NPR SHOULDN'T EXIST Trump questioned why National Public Radio exists after it reported on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s foul-mouthed rant against a co-anchor who asked him about Ukraine. Trump agreed with comments posted on Twitter that labeled the nonprofit media organization a “big-government, Democrat Party propaganda operation." [HuffPost]

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MNUCHIN'S WIFE VOICES SUPPORT FOR THUNBERG Louise Linton, the wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, briefly expressed support for climate activist Greta Thunberg on Instagram, days after her husband dismissed the teen as too unqualified to talk about climate change. Mnuchin said the 17-year-old should get an economics degree if she wants to be taken seriously. Linton's Instagram post disappeared about 30 minutes later. [HuffPost]

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TRUMP'S MIDEAST PLAN SEEN AS LIFT FOR NETANYAHU Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel returns this week to the White House, where Trump is expected to lay out the details of a plan that has been three years in the making. Less than a month after being sworn in, Trump promised Netanyahu he would broker a peace accord between the Israelis and the Palestinians — the diplomatic unicorn that had eluded half a dozen of his predecessors. [New York Times]

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ABORTION LOOMS LARGE IN 2020 MISSOURI GOVERNOR'S RACE Abortion is expected to play a key role in Missouri’s 2020 governor’s race, when voters will decide whether to stick with a Republican who signed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the U.S. or go with the only Democrat who holds statewide office. [AP]

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HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS ALARMED BY RISING ANTI-SEMITISM  Seventy-five years after Jack Lewin was liberated from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, the specter of anti-Semitism is rising once again. Recent violent attacks on Jewish Americans ― in Pittsburgh, Poway, Jersey City ― have left the 93-year-old Holocaust survivor shocked and angry. [HuffPost]

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