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Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Inauguration donor firms created by Indians, Israelis and others
Donald Trump’s inaugural committee collected a record $107m in contributions for events to mark his entry to the White House in 2017. The Guardian can reveal that some of that money came from three obscure shell companies set up by foreign contributors or others with overseas ties, including an Indian financier, an Israeli real estate developer and a lobbyist with links to Taiwan, whose wife said the firm was funded by Chinese investors. All three donated $25,000 to the inaugural fund.
Election law. US law prohibits non-resident foreigners from contributing to inaugurations, a rule that appears to apply to at least one of the people who donated through shell companies.
Critics call Manafort sentencing a sign of a ‘broken system’
Politicians and legal experts have poured scorn on the lenient treatment of Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort after he was sentenced to 47 months in prison for bank and tax fraud. The federal sentencing guidelines for such serious fraud cases are between 19 and 24 years, but the judge TS Ellis, of the eastern district of Virginia, said he believed those guidelines were “excessive”. Manafort also faces sentencing on two conspiracy charges in Washington DC on 13 March.
Law professor. Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard, said he had “rarely been more disgusted by a judge’s transparently preferential treatment to a rich white guy who betrayed the law and the nation”.
AOC. The congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to Manafort’s sentencing by tweeting: “In our current broken system, ‘justice’ isn’t blind. It’s bought.”
Emma Watson, Dua Lipa and others urge protection for women
Dozens of prominent women including actors, writers, business leaders and campaigners signed a letter marking International Women’s Day demanding better protections and improved rights for women from governments around the world. The actor Emma Watson, singer Dua Lipa and novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie were among the 76 signatories to the letter, which said the “expertise and experiences of women human rights defenders are not being recognised” and that women “are not being meaningfully consulted on issues that directly impact them”.
IWD liveblog. Follow the day’s developments on the Guardian’s International Women’s Day liveblog, including in Pakistan where campaigners plan to march against harassment, child marriage and so-called honour killings.
‘Watershed’ depression drug wins FDA approval
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug that experts say could be a “watershed” for the treatment of depression. Esketamine, which is related to ketamine, will be sold as a nasal spray under the brand named Spravato, and is one of the first drugs designed to provide “rapid-acting” relief for people with depression who do not respond to traditional psychiatric medication.
‘Special K’. Ketamine, which is widely used as an anesthetic, a horse tranquilizer and a party drug, has also been used to treat depression in clinics since the early 2000s.
Crib sheet
The House has passed a resolution condemning antisemitism, Islamophobia and other expressions of bigotry, by 407 votes to 23, after the congresswoman Ilhan Omar sparked fresh controversy with comments about political support for Israel.
The US has demanded North Korea give up its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons before it receives any relief from sanctions, after it emerged that Kim Jong-un’s regime had rebuilt parts of its nuclear infrastructure after last week’s failed summit in Hanoi.
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, has said Beijing will take “all necessary measures” to defend Chinese companies such as Huawei, which is locked in a legal battle with the US in what Wang described as a case of “deliberate political suppression”.
The Pentagon is reviewing Elon Musk’s security clearance after the SpaceX chief executive smoked marijuana on a comedy podcast.
Must-reads
Taraji P Henson: ‘Hollywood didn’t grasp my talent’
When she appeared in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X as an extra in 1991, Taraji P Henson told herself that one day she would be “on the Denzel side of things”. It took her 25 years, but today she has a Golden Globe and, she tells Ryan Gilbey, “I call the shots”.
Why Chicago schools teach children about police torture
A gang of Chicago police routinely tortured people in custody over three decades. In 2015 the city passed a law promising compensation to victims of the “Midnight Crew”. Now schools are teaching this dark chapter in classrooms, as Peter C Baker reports.
When environmental racism and climate change collide
The environmental justice movement began in the south, where for years the predominantly black rural poor have suffered the worst effects of pollution from big oil and other industries, as Megan Mayhew Bergman writes in her latest Climate Changed column.
Colombians await the Netflix adaptation of a landmark novel
Netflix has announced plans to adapt Gabriel García Márquez’s celebrated novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. In Colombia, where the author’s legacy looms large, the news was greeted with excitement and trepidation. Joe Parkin Daniels reports from Bogotá.
Opinion
Male allies have always played a part in the women’s movement, writes Julia Gillard, the former prime minister of Australia. As we mark International Women’s Day, she says governments and employers should do more to help men strive for gender equality.
Despite attempts in some quarters to paint gender equality as a zero-sum game, there are plenty of win-win propositions for these men to advocate.
Sport
As his players call for the caretaker coach Ole Gunnar Solskjær to be appointed as permanent manager, Manchester United face another test on Sunday when they meet Arsenal at the Emirates, in a game that could decide who gets a Champions League spot next season. That’s one of 10 things to look out for in the Premier League this weekend.
The Barcelona and England forward Toni Duggan tells Suzanne Wrack that the English women’s soccer team can build on their recent victory at the SheBelieves tournament by claiming this year’s World Cup. “We want a major honour, and we’re good enough to win one,” she says.
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