Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Top story: White House meeting descends into farce, on camera
In an astonishing exchange in front of the White House press corps, Donald Trump told Democratic congressional leaders on Tuesday that he would be “proud” to shut down the US government over his demands to fund a wall along the US-Mexico border. The House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, compared the farcical Oval Office clash to a “tickle contest with a skunk”, while the vice president, Mike Pence, tried so hard to blend into the wallpaper that he became a Twitter meme.
Criminal justice. Despite the public partisan bickering, Tuesday also brought a bipartisan success, as the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, announced a vote on a criminal justice reform bill that is backed by both Trump and Democrats.
Suspect on the run after Strasbourg Christmas market shooting
Hundreds of police are hunting a suspect who shot dead three people and injured a dozen others at Strasbourg’s famous Christmas market on Tuesday. France upgraded its security threat level to the highest category after the gunman fled the scene, following two firefights with patrolling soldiers. The suspect, later identified as a 29-year-old born in Strasbourg, was reportedly injured in the exchange of fire but escaped in a taxi.
Known threat. The suspect was on the French “Fiche S” list of potential security threats. Police reportedly found grenades at his apartment when they went to arrest him for a separate crime earlier on Tuesday. He was not at home at the time.
May defiant as she faces vote of no confidence over Brexit
The UK’s ruling Conservative party will vote on Wednesday on whether to topple its leader, Theresa May, after at least 48 of its MPs submitted letters calling for a vote of no confidence in the prime minister over her handling of Brexit. In a defiant statement at Downing Street, May said she would “contest the vote with everything I’ve got,” warning that a new prime minister would be forced to delay Brexit beyond the March 2019 deadline.
Leadership challenge. The Guardian’s politics team explains how a Conservative party leadership challenge works, and who would be the likely candidates to replace May.
Brexit blues. New research has found the British growing increasingly pessimistic about Brexit, with a significant drop in support among previously diehard Brexiteers.
Senate to vote on support for Saudi-led coalition in Yemen
Bernie Sanders has vowed to press ahead with a Wednesday Senate vote on whether to cut US military support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, as criticism builds over the Trump administration’s links to the Saudi monarchy. The resolution was proposed by Sanders, an independent senator, alongside GOP and Democrat colleagues; it comes as the Senate considers another, Republican-backed resolution that would condemn the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Peace talks. UN-brokered peace talks are under way in Stockholm in hopes of halting the Yemeni conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of civilians and now threatens the world’s worst famine for 100 years.
Crib sheet
A Canadian former diplomat has been detained in China, perhaps as retaliation for the recent arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada; Meng was freed on bail on Tuesday.
The porn actor Stormy Daniels has been ordered to pay Trump almost $300,000 to cover his legal fees, after her defamation suit against him was dismissed by a federal judge in California.
Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, has responded to criticism over his failure to tweet about the Rohingya crisis while on vacation in Myanmar, saying the trip was a “purely personal trip for me focused on only one dimension: meditation practice”.
A street in Westönnen in Germany has been smothered with a tonne of spilled Soester Anzeiger after a storage tank at the local DreiMeister chocolate factory suffered a “technical defect”.
Must-reads
The psychological power of the toys we keep
Teddy bears and other beloved objects help children find their way to independence. When we asked readers about their favourite earliest possession, many of their photographs showed “transitional objects” that had been literally loved to bits. By Moya Sarner.
Tony Kushner: ‘Trump has a sinkhole instead of a soul’
The playwright Tony Kushner’s only musical, Caroline, or Change, has been revived in London’s West End. He tells Alexis Soloski about rewriting West Side Story for Steven Spielberg, and why he’ll never put Trump in a play: “The worst thing about Donald Trump is how profoundly boring he is.”
North Carolina election scandal reflects wider issue of racism
The absentee-ballot scandal in North Carolina’s ninth district appears to have been brazen in its simplicity: ballots were “harvested” from voters, and then disappeared. And the alleged scam disproportionately targeted minorities, as Khushbu Shah reports from Bladenboro.
Nature’s fastest mover? A killer ant’s mandibles
The fastest animal on Earth isn’t a cheetah, a falcon or Usain Bolt: it’s the Dracula ant, whose spring-loaded jaws have now been recorded as snapping at more than 200mph. Hannah Devlin reports.
Opinion
Most of the media are focused on the destruction in Paris, but out in rural France, says Nora Bensaâdoune, the gilets jaunes are breathing new life into forgotten communities.
The gilets jaunes have brought life and colour to places that many assumed had fallen fast asleep. In these rural areas where so many bistros have closed and social organisations are disappearing, the movement is creating a sense of belonging, helping people connect to a wider story.
Sport
Spurs are through to the last 16 of the Champions League after a rollercoaster night at the Camp Nou, where qualification rested not only on Mauricio Pochettino’s team securing their last-minute draw against Barcelona, but also on Inter drawing with PSV in Milan.
Meanwhile at Anfield, a goal from Mohamed Salah and a stoppage time save by Alisson sent Liverpool through to the knockout stages, at Napoli’s expense.
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