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Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
All 157 passengers and crew killed in crash near Addis Ababa
Ethiopian Airlines has grounded all of its Boeing 737 Max 8 jets after a flight crashed near Addis Ababa on Sunday, killing all 157 people onboard. While the cause is yet to be determined, it is the second such disaster involving the new aircraft in just four months. A Lion Air plane crashed in Indonesia in October, killing 189. Carriers in China and the Cayman Islands have also suspended the jets, with two Chinese airlines telling the Guardian they have started using Boeing 737-800 aircraft instead of the Max 8.
UN delegates. Ethiopians made up the greatest number of victims of Sunday’s disaster, in which 18 Canadians and seven Britons also died. Many of those killed were delegates on their way to the UN environment assembly, which starts in Nairobi on Monday.
‘Excellent’ pilot. Ethiopian Airlines said the flight’s pilot, who had an excellent flying record, had reported problems and asked to turn back to Addis Ababa before the crash.
Ex-owner of prostitution case spa ‘offered access to Trump’
Donald Trump’s ownership of Mar-a-Lago continues to raise ethical questions, after it was reported that a company run by one of his donors was offering Chinese clients the opportunity to mingle with the president at the private club in Palm Beach, Florida. The donor in question, Li Yang, once owned the day spa where Trump’s friend Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, was recently charged with soliciting prostitution.
Mueller investigation. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, has said it would be a “mistake” if Robert Mueller fails to get Trump to testify before a grand jury as part of his Russia investigation.
2020 Democrats back new marijuana legislation
It is a far cry from Bill Clinton’s claim that he “didn’t inhale”. The Democrats vying for their party’s 2020 presidential nomination are lining up to support marijuana legalisation, as has Trump’s sole Republican challenger, Bill Weld. New Jersey senator Cory Booker recently introduced legislation that would effectively legalise the drug at federal level; it was co-sponsored by several of his fellow 2020 contenders, including Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
Beto run? Beto O’Rourke last week argued for repeal of the federal prohibition on marijuana usage in an email to supporters; many expect the former Texas congressman to join the 2020 race this week.
North Korea poisoning suspect freed after case collapses
An Indonesian woman accused of poisoning Kim Jong-un’s estranged brother has been released by a Malaysian court after the case against her was dropped. Siti Aisyah was one of two women charged with the murder of Kim Jong-nam, after she and Doan Thi Huong, from Vietnam, smeared the toxic nerve agent VX on his face as he waited to board a flight to Macau at Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017. He was dead within 20 minutes.
Prank claims. Both women claimed they had been duped into the killing by North Korean operatives, who told them they were playing a prank for a Japanese comedy show.
Crib sheet
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have launched a military assault on Baghuz in northeastern Syria, the last enclave of the Islamic State, after the area was apparently emptied of civilians.
A Dutch internet expert has uncovered the existence of an open database in China, which lists the personal information and contact details of some 1.8 million women, including something called their “BreedReady” status.
Khalifa Haftar, the Libyan national army chief, has taken control of two-thirds of the country ahead of a meeting with Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of the UN-recognised government in Tripoli, which it is hoped could end the long-running Libyan civil war.
A Pennsylvania man cleaning out his home found an old VHS tape containing footage of what appears to be the R&B singer R Kelly sexually abusing young girls. Kelly’s lawyers deny he is the man in the video.
Must-reads
The schoolgirl who started a global movement
Last summer, aged 15, Greta Thunberg started a lonely protest for the climate outside the Swedish parliament building. Eight months later, she is the figurehead of an unprecedented global movement. “Some people can let things go. I can’t,” she tells Jonathan Watts.
How folding clothes became an online sensation
Tens of thousands of people have registered their interest in a $1,000 clothes-folding machine. Marie Kondo’s YouTube video explaining her clothes-folding method has been viewed more than 8 million times. Paula Cocozza finds out how folding gives people a feeling of control in a chaotic world.
The price of changing your conservative views
Cera Sherman was ostracised by her family for falling in love with a black man. A quarter-century later, she remains happily married and proud to call herself a liberal. But for white women in Mississippi, she tells Donna Ladd, rejecting conservatism comes with a cost.
From reformer to ‘New Sultan’
Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the most populist of any rightwing leader in the Guardian’s Global Populism Database. How did this apparently cautious, reformist prime minister become an authoritarian president and the “inventor of 21st century populism”? Bethan McKernan and Gokce Saracoglu report.
Opinion
Since the collapse of the Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi, the news about North Korea has been a drumbeat that sounds a lot like the run-up to the Iraq war, says William M Arkin. Instead, he argues, the US ought to go by the East German playbook.
It took almost 20 years of patient tolerance where the US practically ignored domestic discontent for a greater goal. The end result was a peaceful collapse and reunification of one Germany.
Sport
Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s unbeaten away run came to an end on Sunday at the Emirates, where his Manchester United team were defeated 2-0 by Arsenal. That is one of 10 talking points from the weekend’s action in the Premier League.
Minnesota native Kelly Catlin, the three-time world cycling champion and Olympic silver medal winner, has died aged 23.
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