10 things you need to know today: January 25, 2016

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1. East Coast begins digging out from historic snowfall
2. Broncos and Panthers win spots in the Super Bowl
3. Trump widens his lead over Cruz in Iowa
4. ISIS releases video purporting to show earlier atrocities by Paris attackers
5. Kerry dismisses complaints from both sides ahead of Syria peace talks
6. Manhunt intensifies for escaped California inmates
7. Iran arrests 100 people over attack on Saudi embassy
8. Debris on Thai beach examined as possible clue in vanished Malaysia Airlines flight
9. British explorer dies in bid to cross Antarctica alone
10. Suspicious bets on doubles match raise match-fixing concerns at Australian Open

published 25 January 2016

1. East Coast begins digging out from historic snowfall

East Coast cities on Sunday began digging out from winter storm Jonas' historic snowfall. New York City's airports reopened as the city started getting back to normal after its second biggest snowfall on record. Federal offices in the Washington area remain closed on Monday. Icy roads continue to snarl traffic. The death toll, from Georgia to New York, due to the storm climbed to 30. Most of the deaths were on icy roads, although six people died of heart attacks while shoveling snow.

The Denver Broncos defeated the New England Patriots 20-18 on Sunday to win the AFC's spot in Super Bowl 50. The Broncos will face the Carolina Panthers, who advanced to the Feb. 7 big game by trouncing the Arizona Cardinals 49-15 to take the NFC championship. Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, selected All-Pro this season, will lead the Panthers against five-time MVP Peyton Manning. The Broncos quarterback completed 17 of his 32 passes for 176 yards and two touchdowns against the Patriots.

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Donald Trump has surged in early-voting Iowa and regained the lead from his nearest rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, over the last two weeks, according to a Fox News poll released Sunday. Cruz had a slight lead in the last similar poll, but now Trump is ahead by 11 percentage points, 34 percent compared to 23 percent for Cruz. That represents a swing of 15 points in the two weeks since the last poll. Trump is holding onto a big lead in New Hampshire, where he has 31 percent to Cruz's 14 percent. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is in third there with 13 percent.

A video posted online Sunday and attributed to the media center of the Islamic State purported to show nine people who participated in the November Paris terrorist attacks making their last statements. Several of the men in the video were shown beheading hostages. A representative of Flashpoint Global Partners, a monitoring group, said the video "meets all the right criteria of an authentic" ISIS post. The French Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the video, and journalists could not immediately confirm its authenticity.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday dismissed grumbling by both the Syrian government and opposition groups as posturing ahead of peace talks due to start this week. Kerry said he expected clarity on when the United Nations-led talks would begin in the next few days. The negotiations were scheduled to begin on Monday, but were delayed over disagreement on who would represent the opposition. "You don't want to start Day One by not being able to make progress," Kerry said.

Authorities in Southern California intensified a manhunt on Monday for three inmates who escaped a maximum-security jail over the weekend. The men — Jonathan Tieu, 20; Bac Duong, 43, and Hossein Nayeri, 37 — were all in the Orange County Men's Central Jail awaiting trial on unrelated violent crimes. All are considered dangerous, and possibly armed. They obtained tools and cut through half-inch steel bars, then rappelled to the ground from the roof of the four-story building using rope made from braided linens.

Iran has arrested roughly 100 suspects in connection with an attack this month on Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran, an Iranian judiciary spokesman said Sunday. Protesters set fire to the Saudi embassy and ransacked a consulate after the predominantly Sunni Muslim kingdom executed a prominent Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, on terrorism-related charges. Iran condemned the attack, which led Saudi Arabia to cut off diplomatic ties with Iran.

Officials from Thailand and Malaysia are examining debris found on the coast of southern Thailand to determine whether it was from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared in March 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. Thai aviation experts said Sunday that serial numbers found on bolt parts on the wreckage came from a Boeing 777, the model of the missing plane. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said Monday that the metal was probably from a rocket launched by Japan, judging by photos and video of the debris.

Explorer Henry Worsley has died 71 days into his effort to cross Antarctica unaided. The former British Army officer, 55, called for help and was airlifted out on Friday after spending two days unable to leave his tent. His wife, Joanna, said Worsley died of "complete organ failure" after being hospitalized in Chile. He had endured sub-zero temperatures and white-out blizzards, but covered 913 miles and passed the South Pole, getting within 30 miles of his targeted finish line.

Online bookmaker Pinnacle Sports suspended betting on Sunday for a mixed doubles match at the Australian Open due to suspicious betting patterns that raised concerns of possible match-fixing. Large bets were placed on a victory by Andrea Hlavackova and Lukasz Kubot in the obscure, first-round match against Lara Arruabarrena and David Marrero. Hlavackova and Kubot won, 6-0, 6-3. Marrero blamed their defeat on a knee injury. The case came days after the BBC and Buzzfeed repeated that tennis officials had flagged 16 players for suspected match-fixing but did not discipline them.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.