Reuters US Domestic News Summary

The icy weather in the Midwestern state has become a wild card in the crucial contest that could help seal former President Donald Trump's bid to become the Republican nominee to face Democratic President Joe Biden in November's general election. Trump legal team rejects calls for testimony limits in defamation case Donald Trump should not be forced to testify as to his own guilt or face strict warnings about crossing red lines in his remarks should the former U.S. president choose to testify in a defamation trial set to begin this week, his legal team argued on Sunday.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Trump, rivals urge Iowans to brave extreme cold and vote in Monday caucus

Republican presidential candidates exhorted their supporters to brave glacial, life-threatening temperatures in Iowa to vote in the party's first nominating contest on Monday, amid fears a predicted record cold snap could keep many voters at home. The icy weather in the Midwestern state has become a wild card in the crucial contest that could help seal former President Donald Trump's bid to become the Republican nominee to face Democratic President Joe Biden in November's general election.

Trump legal team rejects calls for testimony limits in defamation case

Donald Trump should not be forced to testify as to his own guilt or face strict warnings about crossing red lines in his remarks should the former U.S. president choose to testify in a defamation trial set to begin this week, his legal team argued on Sunday. Trump is due to face a federal jury in New York this week to determine how much he should pay the writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her in 2019, one of a string of legal entanglements he is contending with as primary elections for the 2024 Republican nomination, which the former president is seeking, get under way.

Travel in Buffalo still treacherous, but game will be played Monday

The NFL playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Buffalo Bills will not be pushed back a second time, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Sunday while treacherous weather continued to pound the Buffalo area. The AFC wild-card game was initially scheduled for Sunday in Orchard Park, N.Y., but was pushed back to Monday at 4:30 p.m. ET due to a powerful lake-effect snowstorm.

Haley overtakes DeSantis in Iowa poll days before first test against Trump

Nikki Haley has overtaken Ron DeSantis in Iowa in a closely watched poll just two days before a first-in-the nation presidential nominating contest will determine whether either Republican can emerge as a viable alternative to Donald Trump. Trump remains the dominant candidate in Iowa and the favorite to win their party's nomination and take on U.S. President Joe Biden in what is expected to be a close and deeply acrimonious November vote that has raised questions about the depth of support for Europe and even basic democratic values.

Iowa principal dies from injuries sustained in school shooting

The principal of a school in a small Iowa town who was injured during a shooting on campus at the beginning of the month died on Sunday, his family said. Dan Marburger, had been principal at Perry High School since 1995, suffered serious injuries on Jan. 4 as he helped pupils and staff exit the school after a 17-year-old student opened fire, killing a sixth-grader and wounding five people, including Marburger.

White House: Secretary Austin's doctors think he may need more care

White House National Security spokesman John Kirby on Sunday said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's doctors think he may need additional care. "We'll see, you know, when he can be released, but obviously they still feel like he may need some additional care. ... Part of that is just physical therapy," Kirby told CBS's "Face the Nation."

US tops public distrust in innovation on eve of Davos -Edelman

Business and governments are doing a poor job of managing and regulating new technologies, a survey of people ahead of this week's World Economic Forum's annual meeting has found. The Edelman survey, released as the WEF meeting is set to begin under the theme "Rebuilding Trust", found 39% of respondents asked if they trusted business and NGOs with introducing innovations and governments to regulate them, said it was poorly managed. Just 22% said it was well managed.

Frigid temps cut US natural gas supply as demand soars, Texas faces possible shortfall

U.S. natural gas output fell to a preliminary 11-month low on Sunday as frigid weather froze wells across the country, while gas demand for heating and power generation was on track to hit record highs. In Texas the state's power grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), forecast electric demand on Tuesday would top last summer's all-time high and warned power supplies could fall short on both Monday and Tuesday.

Love him or loathe him, voters agree: Trump looms large in Iowa

Inside a packed cafe in Iowa's capital Des Moines, Dave Brommel says he has been thinking about Monday night's Iowa caucuses ever since Democratic President Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Brommel, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran, blames Biden for the high costs of food and gasoline. He thinks Republicans do a better job of taking care of military veterans.

Arctic cold envelops US during holiday weekend, disrupting Iowa campaigning

The holiday weekend brought dangerous freezing temperatures across much of the United States, snarling everything from political campaigning to football games and travel, and knocking power out to about 350,000 customers in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest. An Arctic blast from Canada caused temperatures to plummet across a vast swath of the country, from the Northwest into the Rust Belt, the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) said in a Sunday bulletin.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)