Washington Post
President Trump’s legal defense team and Senate GOP allies are quietly gaming out contingency plans should Democrats win enough votes to force witnesses to testify in the impeachment trial, including an effort to keep former national security adviser John Bolton from the spotlight, according to multiple officials familiar with the discussions.
While Republicans continue to express confidence that Democrats will fail to persuade four GOP lawmakers to break ranks with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has opposed calling any witnesses in the trial, they are readying a Plan B just in case — underscoring how uncertain they are about prevailing in a showdown over witnesses and Bolton’s possible testimony.
Reuters
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he had a “great discussion” with U.S. President Donald Trump over a digital tax planned by Paris and said the two countries would work together to avoid a rise in tariffs.
Macron and Trump agreed to hold off on a potential tariffs war until the end of 2020, a French diplomatic source said, and continue negotiations at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on the digital tax during that period.
Reuters
TRINIDAD, Cuba (Reuters) - In the colonial Cuban city of Trinidad, handicrafts shop owner Lourdes Milan says she has already slashed prices due to the drop in U.S. visitors following Washington’s tightening of sanctions and she’s worried the situation will worsen this year.
Trinidad, a five-hour drive east of Havana, was one of the top destinations for the Americans that poured into Cuba after the Obama administration eased decades-old restrictions on travel to the island during a short-lived 2014-2016 detente.
But the number of U.S. visitors dropped by 21.9% last year after the Trump administration tightened those restrictions again and banned the recently re-instated cruises, according to data published this month in Cuban state magazine Excelencias.
The Guardian
Canadian soldiers have arrived in Newfoundland to help the province clear up after a massive blizzard over the weekend, as residents grow restless about restrictions on travel and closed businesses.
By Sunday night, nearly 200 soldiers had arrived after Dwight Ball, the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador province, requested federal help. The move underscored the immense challenges communities face in clearing snow that has blocked residents from leaving their houses and accessing their vehicles.
Soldiers have been tasked with clearing roads, freeing trapped residents and assisting ill and elderly people.
A massive storm, known as “Stormageddon”, pummelled the Atlantic province on Friday and Saturday, dumping more than 75cm (29.5in) of snow in the province’s capital, St John’s, with gusts of winds reaching 150km/h (93mph). The resulting drifts buried cars and houses, paralysing much of the region.
The Guardian
Barack Obama spoke out on America’s Martin Luther King Day holiday on Monday, posting a link to the civil rights leader’s 1963 letter from an Alabama jail, written while King was in detention for leading a march of black protesters without a permit and urging a boycott of businesses owned by white people.
“Every so often, I re-read Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” the former Democratic president wrote. “While some of the injustices may have changed, his poetic brilliance, moral clarity, and tests of conscience still reverberate today. Take a moment to reflect on his righteous call.”
As America’s first and so far only black president, Obama took a lead on Monday as many US cities held MLK Day events and competing candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination put aside rivalries and rows to march arm-in-arm in South Carolina.
The Guardian
Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal has received a setback in the Lords after three amendments to the bill were passed.
In the government’s first parliamentary defeat since the general election, peers voted for EU citizens to have the right to be given official documentation if they lawfully reside in the UK after Brexit.
They backed a cross-party amendment to the withdrawal agreement bill allowing for physical proof of status.
The second defeat was over the power of British courts to depart from European court of justice judgments and the third swiftly followed when peers backed a move to allow cases to be referred to the supreme court to decide whether to depart from EU case law.
The Guardian
Greta Thunberg summed up 2019 in five words: “Our house is on fire.” In Australia, this is now literally the case.
Wildfires there have been raging for more than a month and now span an area larger than Switzerland. The situation bears all the hallmarks of a hot new world: lives lost, livelihoods ruined and species pushed towards extinction, accompanied by government inaction, industry PR spin, abetting rightwing echo chambers, and taxpayers footing the multibillion-dollar bill.
Insanely, the Australian government remains in denial – ignoring the science, downplaying the seriousness and subservient to coal. The fossil fuel industry, meanwhile, is busy greenwashing and gaslighting: Chevron is boasting about its $1m donation – 0.00667% of its annual earnings – to the Australian Red Cross, and Exxon Australia just wants everyone to “Stay safe and have fun”. All this is set to a backdrop of mutually reinforcing rightwing new outlets, online bots and trolls, which are distracting and misinforming the public about the science and politics of climate-catalyzed fires.
Al Jazeera
Human-to-human transmission of a new coronavirus strain has been confirmed in China, fueling fears of a major outbreak of the SARS-like virus as millions travel for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Zhong Nanshan, head of the National Health Commission, said on Monday patients may have contracted the new virus without having visited the central city of Wuhan where it was discovered before spreading across China and reaching three other Asian nations.
The new coronavirus strain has caused alarm because of its connection to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.
The total number of people diagnosed with the latest strain of the virus rose to 218, according to CCTV.
Al Jazeera
The newly appointed commander of Iran's elite Quds Force said the United States killed his predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, "in a cowardly way" and promised to "hit his enemy in a manly fashion".
Esmail Qaani made the remarks on Monday at an introduction ceremony held for him by top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) commanders to mark the formal beginning of his tenure.
“They (US) hit him (Soleimani) in a cowardly way, but with God's grace and through endeavours of freedom-seekers around the world who want vengeance over his blood, we will hit his enemy in a manly fashion," he said.
Soleimani's assassination in a US air strike in Baghdad on January 3 pushed the US and Iran to the brink of war, but fears of an all-out conflict eased when retaliatory Iranian attacks against US targets in Iraq on January 8 concluded without any fatalities.
DW News
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg is returning to the Swiss ski resort of Davos for the 2020 World Economic Forum with a strong and clear message: put an end to the fossil fuel "madness."
Thunberg's missive is aimed at, among others, US President Donald Trump, who in the past has mocked the Swedish environmental campaigner, saying she has an "anger management problem." Trump, who is among the most prominent climate change sceptics, is returning to Davos after giving it a miss in 2019 due to a government shutdown.
It's the first time Trump and Thunberg would be present at the same event since last year's United Nations climate change summit in New York, where the teenager could be seen staring down the US president as the two briefly crossed paths.
Later, Thunberg — named Time magazine's Person of the Year 2019 — told the BBC that she "wouldn't have wasted [her] time" talking to Trump about the climate crisis at the UN event.
"Honestly, I don't think I would have said anything because obviously he's not listening to scientists and experts, so why would he listen to me," she said.
DW News
Hundreds of Central American migrants have waded across a river from Guatemala into southern Mexico, spurring clashes with security forces and prompting National Guard troops to fire tear gas.
The migrants, part of a larger group of around 3,500, gathered on the Guatemalan side of the Suchiate River, which divides the two countries, at dawn on Monday. They demanded that migration authorities allow them to continue their journey to the United States, presenting another challenge to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his efforts to curb migration at the request of the Trump administration.
BBC
A newly-discovered part of our immune system could be harnessed to treat all cancers, say scientists.
The Cardiff University team discovered a method of killing prostate, breast, lung and other cancers in lab tests.
The findings, published in Nature Immunology, have not been tested in patients, but the researchers say they have "enormous potential".
Experts said that although the work was still at an early stage, it was very exciting.
What have they found?
Our immune system is our body's natural defence against infection, but it also attacks cancerous cells.
The scientists were looking for "unconventional" and previously undiscovered ways the immune system naturally attacks tumours.
BBC
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says his country will take additional measures in support of Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
Mr Pompeo called on other countries to co-operate in efforts to remove President Nicolás Maduro from office.
[...]
Mr Maduro and Mr Guaidó have been at loggerheads for more than a year, after Mr Guaidó - who heads the National Assembly - declared himself interim president, claiming Mr Maduro's re-election in 2018 was fraudulent.
Despite international pressure and US sanctions on the crucial oil sector, Mr Maduro has managed to stay in power, supported by Russia, Cuba and a handful of other countries as well as the powerful Venezuelan military.
NPR
Angry residents took to the streets of Puerto Rico on Monday.
Fury over the government's mishandling of disaster aid following a spate of devastating earthquakes earlier this month, coupled with the recent discovery of unused supplies — some dating back to Hurricane Maria — is driving frustrated demonstrators to the gates of the governor's mansion.
Fed up with what they say is rampant corruption, they are demanding the resignation of Gov. Wanda Vázquez, who just months ago served as the island's Justice Secretary.
"Where is Wanda? She's not here. She's busy hiding disaster supplies!" crowds shouted on Monday, reviving chants hurled by protesters over the summer, when the public forced Gov. Ricardo Rosselló out of office.
NPR
Harriet Tubman may be the best-known conductor of the Underground Railroad, but a new album highlights another key figure: William Still, who helped nearly 800 enslaved African Americans escape to freedom in the years before the Civil War.
It's about time Still was more widely recognized for his efforts as an abolitionist, historian and conductor for the Underground Railroad. He's featured prominently in the new film Harriet (as portrayed by Leslie Odom Jr.) and he's the central figure of Sanctuary Road, a new oratorio by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec based on Still's 1872 book The Underground Railroad. Kent Tritle deftly leads the Oratorio Society of New York Orchestra, Chorus and a dynamic cast of African American soloists.