There’s a last-minute scramble for support ahead of Monday’s Iowa’s Democratic presidential caucus — the first big test of voter preference in the November election.It’s a crowded field with 11 contenders all hoping to be the Democrats’ choice to stop U.S. President Donald Trump’s re-election in November.Polls going into Monday’s caucus show Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden neck-and-neck with Senator Elizabeth Warren and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg close behind.But many caucus-goers have said they are still undecided and analysts say a few surprises are possible.Unlike primary elections, where actual ballots are cast, voters participate in caucuses by gathering in meetings at schoolhouses, town halls, empty stores, and even people’s homes.They show their preferences by raising their hands or huddling in groups of supporters.WATCH: Related video by VOA’s Kane FarabaughSorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyBackers of any candidate who fails to get at least 15% of the vote are given a chance to throw their support behind another candidate before a final statewide count is made and a winner declared.Despite all the attention it gets, the Iowa caucus has not always been a reliable harbinger of who will win the Democratic Party nomination.Bill Clinton had a notoriously poor showing in the 1992 caucus with less than 3% support and wound up winning the White House that November.Texas Senator Ted Cruz won the 2016 Republican caucus, but Trump was the nominee.Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack says Iowans believe the purpose of the caucus is to narrow the large field of candidates so the rest of the country has few choices but good choices for the primaries. 
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Senators will hear closing arguments Monday in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, a day before he delivers his State of the Union address from the U.S. Capitol. Wednesday, senators cast their final votes in what is widely expected to be the president’s acquittal on charges that he abused the power of the presidency and obstructed Congress’ efforts to investigate his actions.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi looks at the week ahead in Washington.
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John and Laura Hunter live in southern California and over the past few years they’ve been heading out into the desert on the U.S.-Mexico border, trying to make sure people making the trek to the U.S. from South and Central America have what it takes to stay alive during their passage. But not everyone agrees with the help the migrants are getting. Genia Dulot has the story. 
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Доходи загального фонду державного бюджету склали 42,6 млрд грн та були на 13,8 млрд грн меншими за розпис, повідомляє Міністерство фінансів України.

«Головною причиною недовиконання доходів стали суттєві зміни макроекономічних показників порівняно з прогнозом уряду, затвердженим у жовтні 2019 року. Це, зокрема, міцніший обмінний курс гривні (середній курс січня становив 24,1 грн/дол США, тоді як в бюджеті враховано середньорічний курс 27 грн/дол США), менший обсяг імпорту (на 2,5% р/р) та нижчі ціни на газ», – зазначається у повідомленні.

Водночас, у міністерстві наголосили, що у січні було профінансовано видатки відповідно до розпису на підставі відкритих асигнувань. 

Державний бюджет на 2020 рік Верховна Рада ухвалила 14 листопада 2019-го. Доходи держбюджету затверджені на рівні 1 трильйон 79 мільярдів гривень, видатки становитимуть 1 трильйон 170 мільярдів гривень. Бюджет передбачає мінімальну зарплату на рівні 4 тисяч 723 гривні. Мінімальний прожитковий мінімум упродовж року зросте з 2 тисяч 27 до 2 тисяч 189 гривень. Мінімальна пенсія має зрости з 1 тисячі 638 гривень до 1 тисячі 769 гривень.

Президент підписав закон про бюджет на 2020-й 11 грудня.

Прем’єр-міністр України Олексій Гончарук повідомив, що Україна востаннє буде ухвалювати державний бюджет на один рік, оскільки надалі ухваленню кошторису передуватиме ухвалення «повноцінної трирічної декларації».
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The Somali government has declared a national emergency over a locust upsurge which is spreading in the East Africa region.The Somali Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation Said Hussein Iid said the desert locust poses a “major threat” to the country’s already fragile food security situation.The first wave of locust swarms in Somalia last December destroyed about 100,000 hectares of farmland and pastures in Somalia, says Iid.  He warns that an upcoming second wave will be even more destructive.“The threat is very real,” Iid told VOA Somali.The emergency national declaration was made in a statement issued by the Ministry of Agriculture & Irrigation on Saturday, and says the swarms are uncommonly large and consume huge amounts of crops and forage.Iid says satellite information shows new swarms of locusts have arrived the country from the Gulf.Iid says the biggest threat is from locally grown, locally matured locusts that could have a long effect on farming and pasture. The previous locusts that entered Somalia originated Yemen and were immature, Iid said.“When it got matured inside Somalia they migrated to neighboring countries, but newly locally grown locust will be much dangerous compared to the migrated locust,” he said. “That is why we are calling this state of emergency, to be prepared to combat before its gets the maximum damage.”He said millions of eggs were left behind by the previous wave and will likely emerge when the spring rainy season known locally as Gu’ starts in April.”We are afraid there will be new generation of a swarm in Somalia which can cause severe damage both to pasture and the farms, and that will definitely affect the food security situation of the country,” Iid said.Millions of Somalis are already relying on humanitarian support and officials warn that a second wave of locust will bring a bigger destruction.The Somali government and international partners just last month appealed for more than $1 billion for humanitarian support to 3 million Somalis this year. The aid will include a monthly food assistance to 2.1 million people according to the humanitarian response plan.Iid says the Somali government has trained several people in each district to conduct local awareness and “very slow means of controlling the immature swarm” but says these measures are not enough.”The scale of the locust which comes to Somalia is well, well beyond our means of controlling,” Iid said. “That is why we are calling the international partners and the regional government to act together to fight this, to have common strategy to fight the pest.”The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization says it requires an initial $3 million initial response to fighting the locusts.
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While much of the political world focused on Iowa and its caucuses Monday that kick off the election season, President Donald Trump has his mind on a Democratic candidate who’s skipping the early-voting state.Trump used a Super Bowl pregame interview with Fox New Channel’s Sean Hannity to make a false claim about Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor who has been blanketing the airwaves with anti-Trump ads. The Republican president and Bloomberg are running dueling, multi-million dollar ads during Sunday night’s game, the biggest sports event of the year.Trump accused Bloomberg, who is 5 feet, 8 inches tall, of making a special request for a box to stand on if he qualifies for future presidential debates.
“Why he should he get a box to stand on?” Trump asked, according to an excerpt released by Fox. “Why should he be entitled to that, really? Then does that mean everyone else gets a box?”
Trump is “lying,” Bloomberg campaign spokeswoman Julie Wood said.
“He is a pathological liar who lies about everything: his fake hair, his obesity, and his spray-on tan,” she said.
The full interview was scheduled to air Sunday afternoon.
Trump had already fired off a series of early Sunday anti-Bloomberg tweets, calling the billionaire “part of the Fake News” and insisting he “is going nowhere” and “just wasting his money,” despite rising in the polls.
Bloomberg responded with his own aside: “Looks like our ads are keeping you up at night. We’ve got one in particular you should watch today.” Bloomberg’s 60-second spot will focus on the impact of gun violence.
Trump was spending his weekend in Palm Beach, Florida, where he has been golfing and mingling with guests at his dues-paying Mar-a-Lago club. On Saturday night, he made an appearance at an event there hosted by the “Trumpettes” fan club.
 “We just had our best poll numbers that we’ve ever had,” Trump said in his remarks, according to video posted on social media. He also praised singer Lee Greenwood, whose song “Proud to be an American” is played every time Trump takes the stage at his rallies. Also in attendance, per photographs, were actor Stephen Baldwin and Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
The president was expected to host his annual Super Bowl watch party in Florida before returning to Washington late Sunday.
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Three Democratic state attorneys general are suing a U.S. government official to force him to recognize Virginia’s vote this week to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and certify the measure as part of the Constitution.The lawsuit filed Thursday against the archivist of the United States comes after the National Archives and Records Administration said this week that David Ferriero would “take no action to certify the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment.” Supporters say the measure, which Congress passed with bipartisan support in 1972 and sent to the states for approval, will guarantee women equal rights under the law.”After generations of effort, the women of this country are entitled to their rightful place in the Constitution. This Court should compel the Archivist to carry out his statutory duty of recognizing the complete and final adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment,” the lawsuit says.Many ERA opponents say the measure is unnecessary and could have consequences that end up harming women.Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring is partnering with Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Before Virginia’s vote this week that made it the critical 38th state to approve the ERA, Nevada in 2017 and Illinois in 2018 were the most recent to ratify the amendment.The three states’ ratifications came decades after a deadline set by Congress expired, which has left the ERA’s fate in question. Many legal observers have long expected the issue to be settled in court.The lawsuit argues that U.S. laws do not give the archivist the power to decide whether to certify an amendment. They contend the archivist’s duty to certify the amendment is “mandatory and purely ministerial.”In declining to certify the ERA, the archives said it was following advice from the U.S. Department of Justice, which issued an opinion this month saying it was too late for states to certify the ERA. The department said the amendment process must begin anew.The U.S. Constitution says amendments can be proposed by Congress with a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate or by a constitutional convention called by state legislatures. So far, all 27 amendments have been put forward by Congress. Ratification is then required by the legislatures of three-quarters of the states, or 38.In the lawsuit, the attorneys general argue that the deadline passed by Congress is not binding.The time limitation was not included in the text of the article that was sent to the states for consideration, they argue. Additionally, the attorneys general say, the U.S. Constitution doesn’t explicitly give Congress the power to set a timeline for states to ratify an amendment.They note that the last amendment to be added in 1992 – the 27th Amendment limiting the ability of members of Congress to raise their own pay – took more than 200 years to be ratified by 38 states.They’re asking a court to direct the archivist to certify that the amendment has passed and is now the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”The law will never again treat any American like a second class citizen on account of their sex,” said Herring, who spoke at a press conference Thursday in Washington.The press office of the National Archives and Records Administration referred a request for comment to the Department of Justice, which declined comment.The proposed amendment states, in part, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”Supporters of the ERA say it would offer stronger protections in sex discrimination cases and give Congress firmer ground to pass anti-discrimination laws.Opponents warn it would erode commonsense protections for women, such as workplace accommodations during pregnancy. They also worry it could be used by abortion-rights supporters to quash abortion restrictions on the grounds they discriminate against women.Some opponents also say the fact that five states that initially approved the ERA later moved to rescind their ratifications means it can’t be adopted in the Constitution. The lawsuit argues that those states’ efforts are “constitutionally unauthorized and without legal effect.”Just as observers are split on what effect the amendment would have, legal scholars took different views Thursday of the newly filed lawsuit.Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said the court would have to adopt “a parade of constitutional novelties” to declare ratification.Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law scholar and dean of the Berkeley School of Law,  said he thinks the plaintiffs have a “persuasive argument” that 38 states have ratified the text of the amendment. But he added he also sees a strong argument that the issues in the lawsuit are up to Congress, not the courts, to ultimately decide.Two other federal lawsuits have been filed over the ERA, one supporting its adoption and the other opposing it, and Chemerinsky said he expected one or more of those cases to reach the Supreme Court.A. E. Dick Howard, a constitutional law expert at the University of Virginia, said there’s a long way to go before questions about the ERA will be settled.”My goodness, can you imagine the number of parties and other states that would want to be heard in this?” he said. “The amicus brief that would be filed from left and right? This is a hot topic.” 
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The World Food Program warns millions of people in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso do not have enough to eat and are in desperate and immediate need of food aid.A recent U.N. food assessment in the Central Sahel finds 3.3 million people are going hungry, a rise of nearly 1 million since last year.  World Food Program spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs warns this alarming situation is expected to worsen without sustained humanitarian support.”The number of food-insecure people is expected to double as the June lean season gets underway, pushing 4.8 million people into hunger, up from 2.4 million in 2019,” she said. Hunger is wreaking havoc on the nutritional status of people in these countries.  The U.N. Children’s fund reports more than 700,000 children under 5 suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition.  The United Nations reports nearly a million people in the region have been displaced by conflict, which is devastating agriculture and rural economies.  Many people are fleeing in search of food and grazing land for their cattle.  Byrs tells VOA people are resorting to extreme measures to survive.”They skip meals. They sell their asset,” she said. “In some conflict-affected areas, some people have a lot of difficulty to find something to eat.”  WFP is working to scale up its humanitarian operation to assist 2 million people across the three Sahelian countries.  It is urgently appealing for $227 million to provide life-saving food aid over the next six months.  Money also will be used for education, nutrition, and health, and to shore up livelihoods.  
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Kazakhstan on Sunday to join Washington in pressing Beijing over its treatment of Muslim minorities, a sensitive matter for the Central Asian nation which has close ties with its neighbor China.Speaking on a visit to the capital Nur-Sultan, Pompeo said he has raised the matter in talks with Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi.”We discussed trafficking in persons and the plight of more one million Uighur Muslims and ethnic Kazakhs that the Chinese Communist Party has detained in Xinjiang, just across the Kazakh border,” Pompeo said.”The United States urges all countries to join us in pressing for an immediate end to this repression. We ask simply for them to provide safe refuge and asylum to those seeking to flee China.”The United Nations and human rights groups estimate between 1 million and 2 million people, mostly ethnic Uighur Muslims, have been detained in harsh conditions as part of what Beijing calls an anti-terrorism campaign.China has repeatedly denied any mistreatment of Uighurs and says the camps provide vocational training. It describes the detainees as students.Both the United States and China — which are caught up in a broad dispute over trade and other issues — are major investors in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic.Pompeo said on Twitter he met families of ethnic Kazakhs detained in China’s Xinjiang province, and praised Kazakhstan for not forcing asylum-seekers to return to China.Pompeo said the United States was helping oil-rich Kazakhstan protect itself against the coronavirus outbreak originating from China.Tleuberdi made no comment on the Uighur issue and focused instead on economic and security cooperation.
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Dozens of homes were destroyed overnight in Australia’s southeast but the wildfire threat had diminished by Sunday across New South Wales state and around the national capital Canberra, officials said.Bega Valley Mayor Kristy McBain said damage in her region 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of Canberra had yet to be assessed by the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.“There have been additional homes lost in the Bega Valley,” McBain said.“We’re talking probably dozens more. We want to make sure we continue to support our community. This fire isn’t over yet,” she added.She said the overnight fire brought losses of homes in the valley to more than 400 in the current fire season.Rural Fire Service spokesman Greg Allan said damage assessment teams had yet to confirm media reports of homes lost near the village of Bumbalong, 92 kilometers (57 miles) south of Canberra.A dangerous fire threatened southern Canberra and the nearby village of Tharwa. The fire had burnt 55,000 hectares (136,000 acres) of forest and farmland by Sunday, with a perimeter 148 kilometers (92 miles) long, the Australian Capital Territory Emergency Services Agency said.Residents close to the fire front were warned on Sunday to remain vigilant.“This morning the fire is still active. There are still days and possibly weeks of firefighting ahead of us,” Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister Andrew Barr told reporters.He said a state of emergency for Canberra and its surrounds would remain in place until at least Monday. It is the first such emergency declaration in the Australian Capital Territory since 2003, when wildfires killed four people and destroyed almost 500 homes in a single day.There were no fires burning at emergency level — the most dangerous on a three-tier scale — across the Australian Capital Territory or surrounding New South Wales on Sunday.Fires across southern Australia have claimed at least 33 lives since September, destroyed more than 3,000 homes and razed more than 10.6 million hectares (26.2 million acres).
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As if health officials in China don’t have enough on their hands with a spreading coronavirus, now officials announced an outbreak of bird flu.China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced Saturday an outbreak of a highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 bird flu at a farm in the southern province of Hunan.The virus was discovered on a farm with nearly 8,000 chickens — more than half of them have already died because of the outbreak.China is not alone in trying to tamp down the spread of this virus.Earlier this week authorities in India started culling chickens and destroying eggs to contain the bird flu virus.And a different strain — the H5N8 virus — has spread throughout eastern Europe in recent weeks.A bird flu outbreak in China back in 2013 ended up costing $6.5 billion in economic losses, according to U.N. experts.
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