USA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden raised $8.9 million in January, ending the month with $7.1 million in cash, an improvement after he struggled at times last year to raise money.

Biden out-raised rival former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who raised $6 million during the same time, but was vastly out-raised by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who raised $25 million in January.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Businessman Tom Steyer poured $64.7 million of his own wealth in January into his bid to win the Democratic presidential nomination, for a total spend of $267 million, a campaign finance disclosure showed on Thursday.

Steyer’s spending is of historic proportion, but is dwarfed by that of rival candidate billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who pumped $220.6 million of his own funds into his bid the same month, for a total of $409 million since launching his campaign in November.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Richard Grenell, U.S. President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Germany who was tapped to be acting director of national intelligence, said on Thursday that Trump would not nominate him permanently to be the top U.S. spy.

“The President will announce the nominee (not me) sometime soon,” Grenell tweeted a day after Trump announced his selection to lead the nation’s intelligence agencies in an acting capacity.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government expects China to honor its commitments to buy more U.S. goods under a trade deal signed by the world’s two largest economies in January despite the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Many Democratic presidential candidates launched their campaigns last year with bold pledges to reject help from super PACs and dark money groups. But as the realities of a tough primary fight sink in, those promises are fading away.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Bloomberg’s name last appeared on a ballot a decade before #MeToo transformed cultural mores surrounding sexual harassment and the treatment of women. As he campaigns for the presidency, the 78-year-old billionaire is struggling to adjust.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of President Donald Trump, was sentenced to more than three years in prison Thursday for obstructing a congressional investigation in a case that has sparked fears about presidential interference in the justice system.

Soon after Judge Amy Berman Jackson pronounced sentence, Trump publicly decried Stone’s conviction as unfair and prominent Republican legislators were giving tacit support for a pardon. But Trump said he wasn’t ready to act just yet.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Intelligence officials have warned lawmakers that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election campaign to help President Donald Trump get reelected, three officials familiar with the closed-door briefing said Thursday.

The warning raises questions about the integrity of the presidential campaign and whether Trump’s administration is taking the proper steps to combat the kind of interference that the U.S. saw in 2016.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 20 (APP): No country is doing enough to protect children from the impact of climate change, according to a new report by dozens of respected international health experts.

In a UN-backed report assessing the capacity of 180 countries to ensure that their youngsters can survive and thrive, the authors highlight numerous “immediate” threats to their health, environment and opportunities.

These include runaway greenhouse gas emissions, predatory advertising and deepening inequality in and among countries.

20 Feb 2020; MEMO: On Tuesday, members of the US Senate called on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to work on liberating the US citizen of Saudi origin, Dr Walid Fitaihi, who is being tried by the Saudi authorities on “politicized” charges.

“It is very important for the US Democratic and Republican administrations to free United States citizens abroad,” said a statement sent by Democratic Senators: Bob Menendez, Patrick Leahy, Chris Murphy, Chris Van Houlin, and Ron Wyden.