Iraqis rally against US troops, demanding they leave

Waving national flags and banners denouncing U.S. President Donald Trump, tens of thousands of Iraqis marched peacefully through Baghdad on Friday to demand the ouster of U.S. troops from their country in a protest organized by a populist Shiite cleric. Later Friday night, two anti-government protesters were shot and killed by security forces in separate demonstrations a few kilometers (miles) from where the big anti-U.S. rally had taken place, two medical officials and one security official said. The rally by followers of Muqtada al-Sadr and Iranian-backed militias came amid heightened tensions following a U.S. drone strike earlier this month that killed a top Iranian general in the Iraqi capital, fanning anti-U.S. sentiment.

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  Four employees of French Christian NGO missing in Baghdad
  AFP
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  A quarter of a million Iraqis protested the US military's 'occupation' of their country
  Business Insider

Elizabeth Warren Is Ready To Move Past The Early States

Her campaign now has 1,000 staffers on the ground in 31 states, according to a new memo.

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  Elizabeth Warren campaign lays out strategy for primaries and beyond
  ABC News
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  Over 140 Prominent Asian Americans And Pacific Islanders Endorse Elizabeth Warren
  HuffPost

China locks down 10 cities as coronavirus death toll rises

The country is building a hospital dedicated to treating patients infected with the virus.

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  China Quarantines Additional Cities and Cancels Lunar New Year Celebrations as Coronavirus Spreads
  People
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  Coronavirus: US says 'do not travel' to Wuhan, China, as airlines issue waivers, add safeguards
  USA TODAY

Van driver guilty over police officer machete attack but cleared of attempted murder

Rodwan was found guilty of wounding with intent but not guilty of attempted murder and possessing an offensive weapon.

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  'Britain's hardest cop' hacked in the head in brutal machete attack 'just did his job'
  Yahoo News UK
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  Convicted rapist who attacked police officer with two-foot machete jailed for 16 years
  The Telegraph

Fallout from Boeing 737 MAX spreads in Kansas, Oklahoma

Layoffs at Spirit AeroSystems spread Thursday to the airplane parts-maker's plants in Oklahoma amid the widening fallout in its home state of Kansas caused by the halt in production of the troubled Boeing 737 MAX. Spirit filed notice with the state of Oklahoma warning that it planned to lay off about 130 employees at its plant in McAlester, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Oklahoma City. A company spokeswoman, Keturah Austin, said there will also be layoffs at Spirit's facility in Tulsa that do not meet the legal requirements for a notice.

Boeing-Embraer Deal Faces Delays as EU Pauses Its Probe Again

(Bloomberg) -- European Union merger watchdogs said they stopped the clock on their review of Boeing Co.’s tie-up with Brazilian rival Embraer SA for a second time as they demanded yet more details from the jet makers.The move is a re-run of a similar request late last year for data about the deal, which the European Commission has warned could remove Embraer as the third-largest global competitor to both Boeing and Airbus SE, leading to higher prices and less choice.“This procedure in merger investigations is activated if the parties fail to provide, in a timely fashion, important information that the commission has requested from them,” the commission said in an email.Once the missing information is supplied by the parties, “the clock is re-started and the deadline for the commission’s decision is then adjusted accordingly,” the EU authority added.While such requests can be a signal of difficulties with a deal review, they are relatively common when regulators are probing complex transactions. Typical information sought by the EU would include details of how the two companies currently compete with each other in aircraft markets.The delay will push the EU’s deadline for a decision beyond a previous April 30 date, frustrating the companies’ efforts to close the deal early in 2020. Brazil should approve the deal this month, a person familiar with the discussions said last month. It has already been cleared without conditions in the U.S. and China.Boeing plans to take an 80% stake in a venture controlling Embraer’s commercial airplane and services businesses, in order to better compete with Airbus after its rival took control of Bombardier Inc..’s C series aircraft in 2018. Boeing and Embraer have already had to move their target for completing the deal to early 2020.“We continue to cooperate” with Brazil and the EU commission “as they progress their assessments and look forward to a positive outcome,” Boeing said in an emailed statement.(Updates with Boeing comment in last paragraph.)\--With assistance from Aoife White and Siddharth Philip.To contact the reporter on this story: Charlotte Ryan in London at cryan147@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Peter ChapmanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.