Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Rams defeated 13-3 in lowest scoring Super Bowl ever
One Super Bowl record was broken and another tied on Sunday night as the New England Patriots won their sixth NFL championship in 18 years under Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, equalling a record that took the Pittsburgh Steelers almost twice as long to set. It was, however, the lowest scoring Super Bowl game in history, the Patriots defeating the LA Rams 13-3 with an unlovely defensive masterclass. “I’ll take any ugly win over a pretty loss,” said Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman, who was named the game’s MVP.
Half-time show. A shirtless Adam Levine led Maroon 5 through a forgettable half-time performance, after Rihanna, Cardi B and Jay-Z all reportedly turned down the opportunity in protest at the NFL’s treatment of Colin Kaepernick.
Big news. The Washington Post honoured the murdered journalists Marie Colvin and Jamal Khashoggi in its first Super Bowl ad, voiced by Tom Hanks.
Venezuela crisis: EU countries recognise Guaidó as president
France, Spain, Sweden and the UK have recognised the opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president. The co-ordinated announcement came after President Nicolás Maduro failed to meet an EU deadline to call fresh, credible elections as his country slides further into crisis. Guaidó has also urged China to drop its support for Maduro, who refused to rule out the possibility of civil war in a TV interview on Sunday.
The next Vietnam? Maduro warned that Donald Trump’s presidency would be “stained with blood” if the US pursued what he described as a “dirty” imperialist conspiracy to unseat him.
El Salvador election: anti-graft candidate wins in landslide
Nayib Bukele, who ran for the presidency of El Salvador with a promise to crack down on corruption, has won a landslide victory that puts an end to two-party dominance in a country plagued by gang violence and graft. With more than 50% of the votes, the former mayor of San Salvador avoids a March run-off election. A former member of the leftist ruling party, Bukele now leads a small conservative grouping, the Grand Alliance for National Unity, whose initials – Gana – mean “win” in Spanish.
Crime wave. Almost 67,000 Salvadorans are thought to belong to gangs, causing a crime wave that has forced many to flee the country’s violence and seek refuge in the US and elsewhere.
Big dairy pushes fattier milks into US schools
The trade war with China has cost American dairy farmers an estimated $1.5bn in tariffs, but the Trump administration has nonetheless been working to appease dairy industry lobbyists, reports Jessica Glenza. That includes rolling back school nutrition rules to allow fattier chocolate and strawberry milks to be sold to roughly 31 million children in school cafeterias. The new rules, which were finalised in December, permit schools to serve low-fat flavoured milk, rather than only non-fat.
Fat chance. The US agriculture secretary, Sonny Perdue, tweeted in defence of the change, saying: “Nutritious school meals don’t do anyone any good if kids just throw them into the trash.”
Crib sheet
Five people have died after a small plane crashed into a house in southern California, killing the pilot and four occupants of the home in Yorba Linda, near Los Angeles.
The former Democratic governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffehas said his successor, Ralph Northam, will “put Virginia first” and resign following the release of a racist photograph from his 1984 college yearbook.
Musicians in Indonesia are in uproar over a government proposal to outlaw “negative influences from foreign cultures”, an apparent reaction to the perceived immorality of some non-Indonesian pop stars.
The new age author Marianne Williamson, who calls herself a “bitch for God” and is best known as Oprah Winfrey’s spiritual adviser, has announced she will seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Listen to Today in Focus: My father voted for a far-right populist
Hungary’s far-right nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has spearheaded a populist surge in Europe. The Guardian’s John Domokos examines Orbán’s appeal to Hungarian voters, including his own father.
Must-reads
Why the ‘likability’ question pursues female 2020 candidates
A record number of Democratic women will seek the presidency in 2020, including senators Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand. They’ve all endured the old question about their “likability”, but this time the sexist media coverage is being called out, writes Sabrina Siddiqui.
Nathan Phillips wants to talk about Covington
When the Native American elder Nathan Phillips came face-to-face with a Maga hat-wearing teenager at the Lincoln Memorial, they both became national figures overnight. Phillips tells his story to Julian Brave NoiseCat.
How people in high-pressure jobs cope with stress
A neurosurgeon, a business magnate, a Spice Girl … the Guardian’s Joe Stone asked 12 successful people, including Richard Branson and Mel C, how they deal with the inevitable stress of their high-pressure jobs.
Can Joshua Tree recover from the shutdown?
The recent government shutdown left Joshua Tree national park at the mercy of vandals and other inconsiderate visitors, who did damage that one former park superintendent said would take 300 years to undo. Katharine Gammon reports on the clean-up efforts.
Opinion
Muslims in the US are becoming more liberal, even as they suffer increased levels of discrimination, writes Nesrine Malik. So why do high-profile Muslims, such as the Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, still face an inquisition about their values?
Because she is a Muslim, and a Muslim’s place in western public life must always be subject to scrutiny, her opinions are distorted into a sinister shape. The aim is to suggest she is simply too far beyond the pale to hold a position of responsibility.
Sport
A Sergio Agüero hat-trick put Manchester City back within striking distance of the top spot, while Manchester United continued their winning streak under Ole Gunnar Solskjær with another goal conjured by Paul Pogba and slotted home by Marcus Rashford. Those are two of 10 talking points from the weekend in the Premier League.
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