USA

URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) — Donald Trump was stuck in Florida, forcing his presidential campaign to cancel his in-person events two days before Iowa’s kickoff Republican caucuses.

But at his campaign’s Iowa headquarters in a nondescript brick building northwest of Des Moines, volunteers were busy working the phones, trying to turn out the vote for Monday’s contest as the snow whipped in frigid winds outside.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee said they raised more than $97 million in the final three months of last year, boosted by a star-studded December fundraising blitz that came even as the political world’s attention shifted to the start of the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A dangerous Arctic blast will continue sweeping across the U.S. on Monday and linger through at least midweek, prolonging a bitter cold that set record-low temperatures in parts of the country and threatens to further disrupt daily life, including an NFL playoff game and the first-in-the-nation presidential nominating contest in Iowa.

Iowa. (AP) — As frigid temperatures scour the Midwest, the Republican presidential nominating process will officially start Monday with Iowa’s caucuses.

The quadrennial contest has been unusually quiet this year, a mark of former President Donald Trump’s commanding lead in the race. An arctic blast dropping the state into subzero temperatures and dumping snow during the final days of the runup didn’t help, either.

WASHINGTON/LONDON, Jan 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters marched in Washington, London and elsewhere as part of a “global day of action” to demand an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza fighting and to oppose US and British support for Israel.
 
  In WASHINGTON, large crowds waved Palestinian flags as the mostly young protesters — many wearing the traditional keffiyeh — gathered in a show of solidarity on the 99th day of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
 

WASHINGTON (AP) — John Kerry, the U.S. special envoy on climate, is stepping down from the Biden administration in the coming weeks, according to two people familiar with his plans.

Kerry, a longtime senator and secretary of state, was tapped shortly after Joe Biden’s November 2020 election to take on the new role created specifically to fight climate change on behalf of the administration on the global stage.

Kerry’s departure plans were first reported Saturday by Axios.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional leaders are preparing a stopgap bill to keep the federal government running into March and avoid a partial shutdown next week.

The temporary measure will run to March 1 for some federal agencies whose approved funds are set to run out Friday and extend the remainder of government operations to March 8. That’s according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two U.S. Navy SEALs are missing after conducting a nighttime boarding mission Thursday off the coast of Somalia, according to three U.S. officials.

The SEALs were on an interdiction mission, climbing up a vessel when one got knocked off by high waves. Under their protocol, when one SEAL is overtaken the next jumps in after them.

Both SEALs are still missing. A search and rescue mission is underway and the waters in the Gulf of Aden, where they were operating, are warm, two of the U.S. officials said.

WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) — For 75 minutes, Maj. Joe Amoroso quizzed his students in SS202, American Politics, about civilian leadership of the military, the trust between the armed forces and the public, and how the military must not become a partisan tool.

There was one answer, he said, that would always be acceptable in his class filled with second-year students at the U.S. Military Academy. Hesitantly, one cadet offered a response: “The Constitution.”

“Yes,” Amoroso said emphatically.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Homeland Security Department said Saturday that Texas denied federal agents access to a stretch of border when they were trying to rescue three migrants who drowned.

The federal government’s account came hours after U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar said the Texas Military Department and Texas National Guard “did not grant access to Border Patrol agents to save the migrants” Friday night. Mexican authorities recovered the bodies of a woman and two children Saturday across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas.