Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Top story: Missile site exposed as Trump-Kim summit nears
US experts have revealed the existence of a previously undeclared missile site in North Korea, said to house medium-range Nodong ballistic missiles that could reach South Korea, Japan or Guam, a US territory. The report on the seven sq mile (18 sq km) Sino-ri site, one of 20 such sites that North Korea is suspected of failing to declare, comes weeks before Donald Trump is expected to meet Kim Jong-un for a second summit on denuclearisation.
Never declared. Analysts at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which produced the report, said the fact that the base was never declared meant it did “not appear to be the subject of denuclearisation negotiations”.
Kamala Harris officially enters 2020 presidential race
The California senator Kamala Harris has announced she will seek the Democratic presidential nomination, joining an already crowded and diverse field of candidates vying for the chance to run against Trump in 2020. The daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, Harris will formally launch her campaign at a rally in her home city of Oakland, California, on Sunday. While Republicans were quick to criticise her “radically liberal voting record” in the US Senate, Harris will also face questions from progressives about her record on criminal justice during her tenure as California’s attorney general.
Breaking barriers. Harris broke barriers during her meteoric rise through California politics, as Vivian Ho reports, while her campaign logo pays tribute to another pioneering political candidate, Shirley Chisholm.
Starbucks boss. Howard Schultz, the founder and former CEO of Starbucks, is mulling a run for president as an independent, according to US media reports.
New video gives context to teen’s confrontation with activist
Fresh footage of an apparent confrontation between a Native American activist and a Kentucky schoolboy has provided extra context to the incident in Washington DC last Friday, which is being touted as symbolic of deepening social and racial divisions. Members of another protest group, the Black Hebrew Israelites, may have been largely responsible for sparking the standoff between schoolboys from the private, all-male Covington Catholic high school, who were attending an anti-abortion march, and activists taking part in an indigenous peoples’ march.
Competing claims. The controversial video showed Nick Sandmann, a student in a Maga cap, in an apparent face-off with Nathan Phillips, an Omaha tribe elder. Phillips claimed afterwards that he intervened to prevent the schoolboys “attacking … four black individuals”, while Sandmann said in a statement that he was the one playing peacemaker.
Xi warns China to keep ‘political security’ in faltering economy
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has urged officials to maintain “political security” as the country’s economy falters amid its trade war with the US. Last year the Chinese economy grew at its slowest rate since 1990, raising fears in Beijing that the Communist regime could face unrest and opposition. Speaking to senior provincial leaders and ministers on Monday, Xi warned of an “ideological struggle” on the internet, where “domestic and foreign forces are trying to develop supporters of their values”.
Black swans. Xi also said the party must watch for economic “black swans” – unpredictable events that can derail an economy, as well as “grey rhinoceroses” – known risks that go ignored until too late.
Crib sheet
Greenland’s ice is melting much faster than previously thought, with new research showing that the pace of ice loss has increased fourfold since 2003.
The Venezuelan government says it has foiled an attempted military insurrection by more than two dozen national guardsmen, in the latest sign of dissent against President Nicolás Maduro amid the country’s ongoing humanitarian crisis.
A second woman became pregnant as part of a Chinese researcher’s illicit attempt to create the world’s first genetically edited babies, a practice banned in most countries, including China.
The UK Labour party has called for a vote in parliament on whether to hold a second Brexit referendum, a move that the Conservative prime minister, Theresa May, says would threaten Britain’s “social cohesion”.
Must-reads
The new elite’s phoney crusade to save the world
The former McKinsey consultant and New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas has mingled with the world’s privileged elite. He says the business and political leaders gathering at Davos really do want to improve the world – but only as long as their place in it isn’t threatened.
Adam Moss bids farewell to New York magazine
The editor of New York magazine is stepping down after 15 years successfully steering a beloved print institution into the digital age. He tells Ed Pilkington that, contra the accepted wisdom, “the magazine business is doing fine”.
Painting the oceans to showcase climate change
The artist Danielle Eubank has spent 20 years painting about 200 bodies of water from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, to raise awareness of pollution and climate change. Ocean warming is “the most frightening thing I can think of,” she tells Nadja Sayej.
Is The Other Two 2019’s funniest new show?
In the new Comedy Central sitcom The Other Two, a pair of older siblings must come to terms with the wild success of their 13-year-old brother, a Bieber-style pop sensation. Stuart Heritage says it is funny, scathing, touching – and perfectly observed.
Opinion
The psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen has spent his career studying empathy. He argues that appreciating the perspectives of others could prevent political violence, not least in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
I see empathy as one of our most valuable natural resources. It has particular promise as an approach to conflict resolution, one that has advantages over viewing a problem through a chiefly military, economic or legal lens.
Sport
Gayle Benson, the owner of the New Orleans Saints, has complained that her team were “unfairly deprived” of a place in the Super Bowl by a glaring missed call late in their NFC Championship game against the LA Rams on Sunday.
The former Manchester United and England star Rio Ferdinand lost both his wife and mother to cancer in quick succession. As he launches a nutrition business, he tells Simon Hattenstone that tragedy made him determined to do whatever he could to make sure his children would not be bereaved prematurely again.
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