Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Top story: Poll puts ‘untested’ Texan third in Democrat field
One of the biggest questions of 2019 will be which Democrat should face Donald Trump in 2020. And if early polls are anything to go by, then the failed US Senate candidate from Texas, Beto O’Rourke, must be considered among the contenders. A CNN survey has put the 46-year-old El Paso congressman third in a list of Democratic hopefuls, behind Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. And a November meeting between O’Rourke and Barack Obama has only intensified the speculation over his ambitions.
Close call. O’Rourke amassed a record-breaking $38m in the third quarter of his midterm Senate race against Ted Cruz, and eventually came within three points of the Republican.
Lone star? Deep red Texas could produce two leading Democratic presidential candidates in 2020, with the former Obama administration housing secretary Julián Castro also considering a White House run.
Saudis hit back at US Senate over Yemen resolution
Saudi Arabia has issued an unusually strong statement criticising the US Senate, after it passed bipartisan measures calling for an end to US military support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen and blaming the Saudi crown prince for the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The statement said the resolution was based on “unsubstantiated claims and allegations”, adding: “The kingdom categorically rejects any interference in its internal affairs, any and all accusations, in any manner, that disrespect its leadership.”
Trump ally. Trump has continued to defend the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, despite the CIA and others concluding that he ordered Khashoggi’s death.
Wisconsin activists battle threat to African American vote
Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s lame duck Republican governor, signed a series of bills on Friday designed to curb the powers of the state’s incoming Democrat lawmakers – including his own successor, Tony Evers. Among the bills Walker signed, which were characterised by politicians from both parties as a “power grab”, is a bill to limit early voting in Wisconsin that closely resembles a measure ruled unconstitutional and discriminatory in 2016. Activists are mobilising to oppose it, as Eric Lutz reports from Milwaukee.
Early voting. The new restrictions, which may not make it through the courts, would limit early voting to two weeks prior to the Friday before election day, making it harder for many voters to get to the polls. Campaigners say the measure would disproportionately affect African American and other minority voters.
Stephen Miller repeats Trump’s shutdown threat
The senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller has said the White House remains willing to shut down the government over its demand to fund a US-Mexico border wall. Miller, one of the architects of the administration’s hardline immigration policies, told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday that the president would “absolutely” force a shutdown over the issue. Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press, however, the Democrats’ Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer insisted Trump is “not going to get the wall in any form”.
Hair today... Many viewers on Twitter were distracted from Miller’s threats by the spectacle of his rapidly advancing hairline.
Crib sheet
Some Baghdad residents say a trial reopening of the Iraqi capital’s high-security Green Zone to traffic does not go far enough in redressing the balance between average Iraqis and a protected elite.
Researchers are alarmed by a dramatic spike in vaping among US teenagers, after a survey found that some 1.3 million more teens vaped this year compared with 2017.
Vladimir Putin’s official 2019 calendar, which includes images of the Russian president petting a Bulgarian shepherd dog (June) and taking a shirtless dip in an icy lake (January), is outselling those of local celebrities in Japan.
Colin Kroll, the technology entrepreneur who co-founded both HQ Trivia and the Vine video app, has been found dead in New York aged 34.
Listen to Today in Focus: a terrible year for Facebook
Facebook was hit with a series of data, privacy and hate speech scandals in 2018. Alex Hern, the Guardian’s UK tech editor, discusses how Mark Zuckerberg has responded. Plus, our environment reporter Oliver Milman returns to Paradise, California, in the aftermath of the state’s deadliest ever wildfire.
Must-reads
The millennials who are going back to the land
Liz Whitehurst quit a digital communications job in DC to buy a farm, one of a wave of young people fleeing their computer screens for a more agrarian lifestyle. It may sound romantic, she tells Lucia Graves, but she works longer hours than she ever did at the office.
A liberal bastion unsettled by antisemitism
When a Jewish professor found two spray-painted swastikas in an office at Columbia University, it contributed to a growing sense of unease about antisemitism at a school with a history of left-leaning political action. Alexandra Villareal reports.
How do Working Girl’s politics hold up, 30 years on?
Working Girl, Mike Nichols’ 1988 hit about a Staten Island woman making waves on Wall Street, secured six Oscar nominations and was seen as a watershed for workplace culture. Amy Nicholson asks whether its sexual politics are still relevant, three decades later.
Coping with social anxiety over the holiday season
Kate Carraway suggests seven ways to counter your social anxiety, if the very thought of the office Christmas party fills you with dread, from cutting down on alcohol to copying George Clooney.
Opinion
With Amazon facing a Christmas boycott from disillusioned customers, John Harris says the company has little incentive to improve its workers’ conditions when it knows most of them will soon be replaced by robots.
Anyone with even a passing interest knows what defines work at Amazon’s sharp end: frantic working under constant scrutiny, a culture in which basic human demands too often come second to increased efficiency, and questions about wellbeing and safety that will not go away.
Sport
Fabinho quelled any talk of a January transfer with his masterful performance against Manchester United at Anfield on Sunday, propelling Liverpool to a 3-1 win. That’s one of 10 talking points from the weekend’s action in the Premier League.
Over in the NFL, the Bears reached the playoffs for the first time since 2010, while the Indianapolis Colts became the first team to shut out the Cowboys since 2003.
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