Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
White House optimistic after China trade talks
Donald Trump has said he will soon meet the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, confident that they can reach “the biggest deal ever made” to end the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Trump welcomed China’s vice-premier, Liu He, to the White House on Thursday, after two days of talks in Washington, after which China’s trade delegation said they had “clarified a timetable and roadmap” for further negotiations.
Border wall. The president’s negotiations with Democrats are going less well, he said in an interview with the New York Times, implying he is still prepared to declare a national emergency to fund a wall at the southern border.
More than 20 dead as polar vortex sets Chicago cold record
Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin, have both broken temperature records set in 1985, reaching lows of -21F (-29C) and -26F (-32C) respectively on Thursday morning, as the polar vortex caused or contributed to the deaths of at least 21 people across the country. The dangerously cold weather kept schools and businesses closed in much of the midwest, while Chicago stepped up efforts to help its homeless population by opening warming centers.
Soldarity in “Chiberia”. Eric Lutz talked to Chicagoans about the place of extreme cold in their city’s collective psyche.
Anti-corruption candidate poised to win El Salvador elections
The leftwing former mayor of San Salvador, Nayib Bukele, is the favourite to win Sunday’s presidential election in El Salvador, after standing on an anti-graft platform following a string of government corruption scandals. Should the 37-year-old win this weekend, he will join a wave of anti-corruption candidates sweeping to power across Latin America, from both right and left, which began with the popular uprising that unseated the president of neighbouring Guatemala in 2015.
Venezuela. The European parliament has recognised the Venezuelan opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, as the country’s interim president, with fresh protests against the regime of President Nicolás Maduro planned for Saturday.
Brazil. The new, far-right president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, promised to free the country “from the yoke of corruption”. But after a month in office, his administration is already plagued by scandal, as Tom Phillips and Anna Jean Kaiser report.
FBI investigated civil rights group as ‘terrorism’ threat
The FBI opened an investigation that cast a California civil rights group as “extremists”, and members of the Ku Klux Klan as victims, after a clash between the two at a white supremacist rally in Sacramento in 2016, according to documents obtained by the Guardian. Federal authorities began surveilling By Any Means Necessary after one of the leftist group’s members was stabbed at the rally.
White supremacists. The FBI appeared to downplay the far-right threat in their files on the inquiry, which said: “The KKK consisted of members that some perceived to be supportive of a white supremacist agenda.”
Crib sheet
A security firm run by Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater and brother of the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, is to build a training camp in Xinjiang under a deal with Chinese authorities, amid China’s harsh crackdown on the region’s Uighur Muslims.
Facebook has announced the removal of almost 800 pages, groups and accounts thought to have been part of coordinated influence operations from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. Between them, the accounts had close to 2 million followers.
The family of Empire star Jussie Smollett have said they believe the actor was the victim of a “racial and homophobic hate crime” after he was attacked in Chicago earlier this week.
Paris has lifted a longstanding and widespread ban on dogs in parks, as well as relaxing the rules on swimwear, ball games, bikes and picnics in the city’s green public spaces.
Super Bowl LIII
Paolo Bandini said the Rams would beat the Patriots at Super Bowl LIII back in September. He and the Guardian team give their detailed predictions for Sunday night’s game in Atlanta, now it’s clear a judge will not overturn the controversial call that cost New Orleans the NFC Championship. Tom Dart looks at how the biggest night in sports has become symbolic of America’s cultural divisions, while Andrew Lawrence asks why a league whose players are 70% black is still being covered overwhelmingly by white broadcasters.
Cheering progress. Quinton Peron and Napoleon Jinnies of the LA Rams will make history on Sunday as the first male cheerleaders ever to perform at a Super Bowl.
Patriots fan. Dejah Rondeau, a seventh-grade girl from New Hampshire who was bullied for playing quarterback on a youth football team, will attend the game as a guest of the Patriots.
Listen to Today in Focus: Disaster in the Australian outback
The rivers in south-eastern Australia are running dry, thanks to a mix of heat, drought and official mismanagement. That’s a catastrophe for residents and wildlife alike, as Guardian reporters Anne Davies and Lorena Allam explain in today’s podcast.
Must-reads
KiKi Layne’s Beale Street debut turns heads and opens doors
KiKi Layne makes her film debut in Barry Jenkins’ screen adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel, If Beale Street Could Talk, a powerful tale of black love and injustice in 1970s New York. “I was just like: ‘How did I get into this movie?’” she tells Steve Rose.
How smoking weed can get you fired, even if it’s legal
Recreational marijuana may now be legal in 10 states, but there is still nothing to prevent employers letting go of their workers if the drug is found in their system. A new bill being debated in Massachusetts could change that, as Josh Wood reports.
‘It tore me apart’: surviving child sexual abuse
Tom Yarwood, a talented young pianist, was 12 when his musical mentor sexually abused him for the first time. The abuse went on for three years, but its effects will linger for a lifetime, he writes.
Opinion
Rebecca Solnit argues that Trump’s lurid, largely baseless warnings about the threat at the southern border are a distraction from the real dangers within – not least rightwing extremist violence, perpetrated by white men.
When the US government was partly shut down because of the president’s hostage-taking tantrum tactics to get his border wall, native-born white men – not immigrants, not Muslims – proved, once again, to be a major source of violence and hate in America.
Sport
The Dallas Mavericks have agreed a surprise trade to acquire rising NBA star Kristaps Porzingis from the New York Knicks. The 23-year-old Latvian was once described as a “unicorn” by Kevin Durant for his range of skills.
Manchester City could slide to third in the table this weekend, and they might even stay there if Arsenal manage a surprise win at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. That’s one of 10 things to watch out for amid the weekend’s Premier League action.
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