Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Top story: Two duelling bills to face Senate vote on Thursday
The US Senate will vote on two bills designed to end the partial government shutdown on Thursday. A Republican-backed measure would include the $5.7bn in funding for a southern border wall demanded by Donald Trump, while a bill brought by Democrats would extend funding for government agencies until 8 February to allow further time for negotiations. Whether either bill can pass remains to be seen, but their introduction marks the first sign of legislative movement amid the shutdown, now in its 33rd day.
Vote numbers. Democrats probably have enough votes to block any proposal that funds Trump’s wall, and they would need at least 13 Republicans to back their bill to reach the necessary 60-vote threshold. So neither bill seems likely to pass.
Deadly business: free-market groups help tobacco industry
A Guardian investigation has revealed that more than 100 free-market thinktanks on several continents are supporting cigarette manufacturers by taking favourable positions against tobacco control policies or accepting donations from the tobacco industry. Major firms including Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco have made donations, while leading US thinktanks such as the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute are among those in the Guardian’s database who have accepted them and gone on to comment on tobacco policy.
Cancer links. One Africa-based thinktank questioned whether the link between cancer and smoking “was yet to be empirically established” before walking the claim back.
Malaysia deaths. An influential thinktank helped quash a World Health Organization recommendation to increase cigarette taxes in Malaysia, where smoking kills more than 27,200 people every year.
Florida governor’s green credentials tested by water battle
Ron DeSantis, the new Republican governor of Florida, is facing the first challenge to his fresh environmental approach after trying to wrest control of state water policy from industry interests, in stark contrast to his predecessor, Rick Scott. DeSantis has demanded the mass resignation of Scott’s water management team, after they refused to delay a lease extension for a sugar corporation on land in the Everglades wetlands, which DeSantis wants earmarked for a clean-water storage reservoir.
Green governor. DeSantis recently unveiled a $2.5bn environmental package, partly in response to the “red tide” of toxic algae that afflicted Florida in 2018, and which DeSantis said had “devastated our local economies and threatened the health of our communities”.
Bolsonaro proclaims end of ‘Bolivarian’ left in Davos debut
Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has declared the demise of South America’s “Bolivarian” left in his first appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, insisting the region is entering an era of uncorrupted governance under conservative leadership such as his. But his international debut was eclipsed by domestic scandal as his son Flávio, a recently elected senator, was linked to a violent organised crime group in Rio de Janeiro in a report by one of the country’s leading newspapers.
Rainforest road. Bolsonaro’s government has announced plans to privatise and pave the Trans-Amazonian Highway, a route that is widely blamed for extensive deforestation in the Amazon.
Crib sheet
Mike Pence has issued a video message in support of anti-government protesters in Venezuela, after a wave of unrest in Caracas piled further pressure on the country’s embattled president, Nicolás Maduro.
A state judge has struck down Iowa’s “fetal heartbeat” abortion law, declaring it unconstitutional. The most restrictive such law in the US would have banned abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can be as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
Trump has defended a group of Maga-hat-wearing schoolboys filmed in a face-off with native American activists, describing the students from Covington Catholic high school in Kentucky as “symbols of fake news”.
The deaths of two Saudi Arabian sisters, found taped together and washed up on a New York City waterfront last October, have been ruled a double suicide.
Listen to Today in Focus: Delhi’s deadly air
India’s capital, Delhi, suffers from some of the world’s worst air pollution. The Guardian’s south Asia correspondent, Michael Safi, takes a ride with one of the city’s rickshaw drivers, who says the deadly air is damaging both his health and his livelihood.
Must-reads
The Oscarbait films that failed in 2019
Roma and The Favourite deservedly lead the Oscar field with 10 nominations apiece, writes Peter Bradshaw, but the Academy overlooked several great films by female directors. Meanwhile Benjamin Lee rounds up the awards prospects that failed to convert buzz into votes.
Resistance and activism reawaken in the Trump era
In the two years since Trump’s inauguration, millions of Americans have been motivated to march, strike and otherwise protest against his presidency as part of movements such as Black Lives Matter and the Women’s March, as Amanda Holpuch reports.
How selfie dysmorphia is driving people to seek surgery
The cosmetic doctor Tijion Esho coined the term “Snapchat dysmorphia” when he noticed his patients were asking to alter their features to more closely resemble their filtered selfies IRL. Elle Hunt investigates a digital phenomenon made flesh.
What one cleaner saw in America’s homes
A single parent stuck in a series of low-wage jobs, Stephanie Land finally found regular work cleaning the homes of the better-off. As she publishes a book about what she saw – including porn, opioids and a freezer full of cigarettes – she tells Sian Cain what she learned from America’s dirty laundry.
Opinion
The Davos elite are terrified by the speed at which the world order they created is crumbling, writes Aditya Chakrabortty. But they still won’t acknowledge that they’re a large part of the problem.
Populism of all stripes may be anathema to the billionaire class, but they helped create it. For decades, they inflicted insecurity on the rest of us and told us it was for our own good.
Sport
Serena Williams has missed her latest chance to equal Margaret Court’s record 24 grand slam titles, after blowing a third-set 5-1 lead over Karolína Plíšková in their Australian Open quarter-final on Wednesday.
South Korea’s human rights commission plans to interview thousands of adult and child athletes across 50 sports about a culture of abuse in its largest ever inquiry, after a wave of female athletes alleged they had been raped or assaulted by their coaches.
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