Reuters News Now

Top Stories

President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans in the U.S. Senate came under renewed pressure to allow witnesses in his impeachment trial, while his defense team largely ignored disclosures from a former White House adviser. The elephant in the room on Day 2 of Trump’s defense arguments was John Bolton, the former national security adviser whose unpublished book manuscript, according to the New York Times, included disclosures that go to the heart of the abuse of power charge against Trump.

Overcast skies and fog reported at the scene of the helicopter wreck that killed Los Angeles basketball great Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others, figured prominently in the first full day of federal aviation experts’ crash investigation. An 18-member National Transportation Safety Board team, assisted by FBI forensic specialists, began mapping the wreckage site with drones and examining debris scattered across the hillside where the helicopter went down on Sunday.

Afghan forces and Taliban fighters clashed in a central region where a U.S. military aircraft crashed, officials said, as the government tried to reach the wreckage site in a Taliban stronghold. On Monday, the U.S. military said an E-11A aircraft crashed in the province of Ghazni, but disputed Taliban claims to have brought it down, without saying how many were aboard or if any had been killed.

Britain’s Prince Andrew has provided 'zero cooperation' to U.S. authorities probing sex trafficking allegedly carried out by deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein and co-conspirators, a prosecutor said. The FBI and U.S. federal prosecutors contacted Prince Andrew’s lawyers and requested an interview with the prince, who socialized with Epstein, Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said at a news conference in front of Epstein’s mansion.

World

The head of the World Health Organization said he was confident in China’s ability to contain a new coronavirus that has killed 106 people and that he did not think foreigners should be evacuated, China’s foreign ministry said. A growing number of countries have said they will evacuate their citizens from Wuhan, a central city of 11 million people and the epicenter of the outbreak. A chartered plane taking out U.S. consulate staff was set to leave Wuhan.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu withdrew his bid for parliamentary immunity from prosecution on corruption charges, making a criminal trial against him a near certainty. Israel’s longest-serving prime minister said in a statement that an immunity debate in parliament would have been a “circus” and he did not want to take part in this “dirty game”.

Australian officials warned communities in bushfire-ravaged eastern states to strengthen fire defense amid forecasts of soaring temperatures and strong winds, as one approaching blaze cloaked the capital in thick smoke. Bushfires have killed 33 people and about 1 billion animals since September, while 2,500 homes and an area the size of Greece have been destroyed. Firefighters have used several days of cooler, damper weather across much of the continent to try to gain control of more than 100 blazes still burning before temperatures rise again from mid-week.

New Zealanders will go to polls on September 19 to decide on a second term for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and also to vote in referendums on the divisive issues of legalizing cannabis and euthanasia. Ardern is hugely popular among liberal voters overseas thanks to her compassionate but decisive response to a mass shooting, her focus on climate change action and multilateralism, and her ability to combine motherhood and leadership.