Top News Stories for Today – Jan 22, 2019
Top News Stories for Today – Jan 22, 2019
Kamala Harris enters 2020 presidential race
Democratic Senator Kamala Harris says she will run for president in the 2020 election, the eighth name to join the battle for the party’s nomination. She represents California and previously served as the state’s attorney general.
Harris, 54, made her announcement in a video posted online and also on ABC’s Good Morning America. Harris was California’s attorney general and before that, a district attorney. She is the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica (father) and India (mother) — would be the first woman, first Asian-American, and first black woman to be elected president. The Washington Post
Republican plan to end shutdown
Republicans in the US Senate have released a spending proposal that would end the partial government shutdown, taking direction from a proposal by President Donald Trump that he called a “compromise plan” but which Democrats say will go nowhere.
The most politically important piece is $5.7 billion in funding to build a barrier along the US-Mexico border, something Trump has said since he campaigned for president is necessary to stop illegal immigration and the flow of drugs across the border. With Republicans holding a 53-47 majority in the Senate, they would need a number of Democrats to support the bill in order to reach the 60-vote threshold usually required for legislation to advance. VOA
20 secret missile sites in N Korea found
With a second US-North Korea nuclear summit looming in February, researchers have discovered a secret ballistic missile base in North Korea — one of as many as 20 undisclosed missile sites in the country, according to the researchers’ new report.
The Kim regime has never disclosed the existence of the Sino-ri Missile Operating Base to the outside world. Ballistic missiles are the primary delivery mechanism for North Korean nuclear warheads. The report from Beyond Parallel, a project sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a defense think tank, was released Monday. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NBC News
Russian court denies bail to US man accused of spying
A court in Russia has denied bail to an American man being held on spying charges. Paul Whelan, a dual US-British citizen and former US Marine, was arrested December 28 for what the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said was “carrying out an act of espionage,” without specifying exactly what he was accused of doing. His family has said he is innocent. VOA
Giuliani clean up comments on Trump Tower
President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani said Monday that the President had no recollection of whether discussions about a proposed Trump Tower Moscow project went through the 2016 election, distancing himself from a claim he made Sunday.
Giuliani’s remarks were an attempt at damage control after comments he made a day prior when he said the talks about the Moscow project continued through the campaign, even possibly as late as October or November 2016. Adjusting his previous timeline, Giuliani told CNN on Monday that there was no way of determining exactly when the discussions ended because they had no record of it. CNN