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Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders' polling numbers have barely moved in the past year

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Candidates have come and gone, but Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are forever.In the ongoing 2020 Democratic presidential primary, RealClearPolitics puts the former vice president's polling average at 27.8 percent as of its last update on Dec. 19. Sanders, the Independent senator from Vermont, gets 19.3 percent, giving the two candidates almost exactly the same polling averages they had a year ago.Yes, on Dec. 19, 2018, Biden had an average of 27.5 percent support for winning the 2020 nomination, while Sanders had 19 percent. It didn't matter that neither candidate had entered the presidential race yet, or that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was pretty much the only major candidate who had. Biden and Sanders have both seen spikes and drops in the year since, but with 2020 less than a week away, things are not really different than they were a year ago.Those unchanging numbers come despite Warren's rise from 5 percent support a year ago to 15.2 percent support as of Dec. 19, ...

Australian wildfires threaten Sydney water supplies

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Australian authorities said on Friday they are focused on protecting water plants, pumping stations, pipes and other infrastructure from intense bushfires surrounding Sydney, the country's largest city. Temperatures in New South Wales (NSW) state are forecast to head back towards 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) early next week, fuelling fires near Warragamba Dam, which provides water to about 80% of Sydney's 5 million residents. "In recent days up to the cool change, the fires had been a potential threat to supply and assets, particularly in Warragamba and in the Blue Mountains," a spokesman for the state's water authority, WaterNSW, told Reuters. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2t4uKrU via Latest News

Why did Trump ditch his church in Palm Beach on Christmas Eve for evangelical service?

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The president and first lady ditched the liberal church in Palm Beach where they were married and headed to a conservative Baptist-affiliated church. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/365awNu via Latest News

New York City Increases Police Presence in Jewish Neighborhoods After Possible Anti-Semitic Attacks. Here's What To Know

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Some Jewish neighborhoods of New York City will see an increase in police presence after a string of recent anti-semitic attacks. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2F1cLoR via Latest News

Ex-bombmaker, Bali widow forge friendship, seek peace

The Balinese widow stared across the courthouse at the man who had murdered her husband and 201 others and longed to see him suffer. Ever since that horrible night, when she realized amid the blackened body parts that the father of her two little boys was dead, Ni Luh Erniati's rage at the men behind the bombing had eaten away at her. What would happen a decade later between her and Amrozi's brother — the man who had taught Amrozi how to make bombs — was unthinkable in that moment. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Q0NCkt via Latest News

Living the High Life on the Autoworkers' Dime

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On a single day in December 2015, Gary Jones, who resigned last month as president of the United Auto Workers, spent more than $13,000 of the union's money at a cigar store in Arizona. His purchases included a dozen $268 boxes of Ashton Double Magnums and a dozen boxes of Ashton Monarchs at $274.50 each. "Hi Gary, Thank you & Happy New Year," read a handwritten note from the store.The purchases, documented by a federal complaint filed against a union leader in September, were part of more than $60,000 in cigars and cigar paraphernalia that Jones and other UAW officials expensed to the union between 2014 and 2018. And the cigar purchases were in turn just a small portion of the roughly $1 million in union money that court filings say UAW officials spent on golf outings, four-figure dinners and monthslong villa rentals during regular retreats in Palm Springs, California, and elsewhere.The scandal comes on top of an investigation into company and union officials' imp...

2 passengers say they were sexually assaulted during their flights. They're suing the airline for allegedly ignoring their reports.

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One woman alleged in the lawsuit that she immediately notified a flight attendant when she was assaulted, but she was not allowed to switch seats. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/37h9Kgx via Latest News

Turkey Raises Net Minimum Wage by 15% for 2020

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(Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s minimum wage, earned by almost a third of the workforce, has been raised by 15% for 2020, after dissatisfaction with the economy hurt President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party in municipal elections.The net monthly minimum wage will be 2,325 liras ($392) next year, up from 2,021 liras in 2019, Labor Minister Zehra Zumrut Selcuk said in Ankara on Thursday. The increase compares with a November inflation rate of 10.56%, which declined steadily after hitting 25% in late 2018, following a currency shock in the summer of that year.A downturn in the economy, accompanied by a surge in inflation in 2018, was a major factor in the ruling AK party’s losses in municipal elections earlier this year. The most stinging defeats came in commercial hub Istanbul and the capital, Ankara.About 10 million workers -- almost a third of the 33-million-strong labor force -- earn the minimum wage or slightly higher, according to a study by the Confederation of Progressive Trade Union...

Sizzling temperatures hit Australia as wildfires persist

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A code red was issued in South Australia on Friday as temperatures hit 42 degrees Celsius (108 Fahrenheit) in the state’s capital, while firefighters battling wildfires in New South Wales established containment lines in cooler conditions ahead of an expected heatwave this weekend. South Australia last week had 86 homes destroyed after wildfires flared in catastrophic conditions, as its capital Adelaide endured a heatwave peaking at a sizzling 46 C (115 F). The heatwave has prompted the South Australian government to declare a code red, which aims to ensure the homeless kept cool and hydrated. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2srl22J via Latest News

Norwegian woman told to leave India after joining citizenship law protest

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A Norwegian woman on holiday in India's southern state of Kerala has been told to leave the country after she joined a protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new citizenship law, authorities said on Friday. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2QqX1Rp via Latest News

Serbs protest in Montenegro ahead of vote on religious law

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Hundreds of backers of Montenegro's pro-Serb opposition took to the streets of the capital Podgorica on Thursday, rallying against a law they say would strip the Serbian Orthodox Church there of its property. Ahead of a vote on the draft Law on Religious Freedoms, expected later on Thursday or on Friday, Serbian Orthodox clergy and believers held a service on a packed bridge near parliament, watched by police who had sealed off city center roads and approaches to the government building. The law envisages that religious communities in the tiny Adriatic state would need to prove property ownership from before 1918, when predominantly Orthodox Christian Montenegro joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the predecessor of the now-defunct Yugoslavia. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2rt4Z3Z via Latest News

Witnesses, police coping with Christmas deaths of woman and 2 kids

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They were found unconscious on the sidewalk in front of a multi-level Boston garage and died at a hospital. Their deaths are under investigation. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2QkgZNJ via Latest News

Turkey Convicts Dissident Journalists on Terrorism Charges

(Bloomberg) -- A Turkish criminal court convicted at least seven staffers at the Sozcu newspaper on terrorism-related charges, the latest such ruling targeting journalists critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his policies.The journalists, including veteran columnist Emin Colasan, were sentenced to jail terms of between two and four years on charges that they aided a secretive religious brotherhood called FETO, state media reported on Friday. The journalists have denied the charges.The Sozcu reporters join a long list of journalists and academics to face charges of aiding terrorist groups including the followers of U.S.-based imam Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan accuses of masterminding a failed coup attempt in 2016.The newspaper, known for its secular take on policy issues and critical coverage of the Turkish government, has denied any links with the Gulen network. Turkey’s main opposition party CHP says the daily paper has become a target only because it refused to become a mo...

The 20 most dangerous volcanoes in the US, ranked

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A US Geological Survey list of volcano threats has been updated for the first time since 2005. California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii are at risk. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2rvTYio via Latest News

Trump warns Syria, Russia and Iran against killing 'innocent civilians' in Idlib province

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The unrest in Idlib has sent more than 216,000 civilians fleeing from their homes. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2rtPF7f via Latest News

Congolese woman, 41, dies after entering US border custody

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A 41-year-old Congolese asylum seeker died Wednesday in U.S. government custody shortly after she entered a border station in South Texas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday. CBP says the woman, who the agency did not identify, had arrived at an official port of entry in Laredo, Texas, early Tuesday afternoon. The woman came with paperwork that documented a “previous medical condition,” CBP said. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Ss3yxW via Latest News

Ukraine to buy more U.S. Javelin anti-tank missile systems

Ukraine will purchase a second consignment of U.S. Javelin anti-tank missiles and launch units, Ukraine's Defense Ministry said on Thursday. The United States has been one of Kiev's strongest supporters since Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the outbreak of fighting in Ukraine's eastern Donbass region that has killed more than 13,000 people. Contracts for the deal were signed in the fourth quarter of 2019, the defense ministry in a statement, without giving further details. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/360H2Qy via Latest News

Target’s big year-end clearance sale has savings up to 70% – here are today’s top 10 deals - BGR

Target’s big year-end clearance sale has savings up to 70% – here are today’s top 10 deals    BGR from Technology - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/37j16y1 via Technology

2020 will be the beginning of the tech industry's radical revisioning of the physical world - TechCrunch

2020 will be the beginning of the tech industry's radical revisioning of the physical world    TechCrunch from Technology - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/37geP8O via Technology

Today’s best deals: $15 Wi-Fi extender, Switch games, Apple Watch, drinking games, Ring Doorbells, $199 Roomba, more - BGR

Today’s best deals: $15 Wi-Fi extender, Switch games, Apple Watch, drinking games, Ring Doorbells, $199 Roomba, more    BGR View full coverage on Google News from Technology - Latest - Google News https://ift.tt/361pgwA via Technology