Trump accepts deal for temporary end to painful shutdown
President Donald Trump has yielded to political pressure to end the longest US government shutdown in history.
After 35 days, he backed a deal to fund federal agencies for three weeks, but it includes none of the money he has demanded for a US-Mexico border wall.
The Republican president previously vowed to reject any budget unless it included $5.7bn (£4.3bn) to fund his signature campaign pledge.
But Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, flatly refused.
Thailand's military junta cracks down on social media ahead of election
Restrictions on political parties’ campaigning raises questions of how free and fair will much-postponed poll be
Social media campaigning will be heavily restricted in the upcoming Thai election, in a move political parties claim will gag freedom of expression and directly affect younger voters.
Following the confirmation that Thailand’s much-postponed election would finally be held on 24 March – the first election since the military seized power in a bloodless coup in 2014 – the election commission released strict guidelines on political campaigning.
The commission particularly targeted social media in the new rules, banning posts that contained anything other than candidates’ names, pictures and biographies, and the party name, logo policies and slogans. The rules were seen to target newer progressive parties that rely heavily on social media to spread their message.
Davos 2019: Swedish teenage activist tells global elite they are to blame for climate change
'I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act,' Greta Thunberg says
Shehab Khan
A teenage activist has told the global elite at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos that they are to blame for the climate crisis and that the “house is on fire”.
The Swiss summit is characterised as a discussion of momentous issues like Brexit, world trade and global warming.
Environmentalists have been complaining of alleged hypocrisy after reports that a record number of flights by carbon-spewing private jets would ferry rich corporate bigwigs to talk at the event this year.
Hundreds missing after Brazil dam collapse
An earth-filled dam has burst in southeastern Brazil, releasing a river of sludge that destroyed and damaged homes in Minas Gerais state. Up to 200 people are missing and seven victims have been found, authorities said.
Brazilian authorities were evacuating the area near the Corrego de Feijao mine in the country's southeast after the mine's dam that holds residual waste burst on Friday. The cause of the rupture was not immediately clear. Brazilian paper Folha de S.Paulo tweeted a video showing a river of mud.Up to 200 people were missing, firefighters said in a statement released from the city of Belo Horizonte, adding that scores were trapped by the river of sludge. Fire brigade spokesman Pedro Aihara said that among the missing were 100 employees of the Vale SA mining company, who were having lunch in the dam's administrative area when the dam burst.
UN Security Council divided on climate-security link
Russia and the US resisted on Friday efforts by the UN Security Council to take a tougher stand on climate change -- a day after UN chief Antonio Guterres warned of a lack of political will to fight global warming.
More than 80 people including about 15 ministers -- a record according to some diplomats -- were expected to air their views at the Council debate about the impact of climate-related disasters on peace and security.
Such numbers "are very surprising," an African ambassador said, while a French diplomat said it indicates "a large awareness" of the issue.
The debate came after Guterres, at the Davos World Economic Forum, demanded bolder action from governments to arrest runaway warming, which he called "the most important global systemic threat in relation to the global economy."
Why the debate around Australia Day gets more heated every year
By Ben Westcott, CNN
"This used to be the greatest country on Earth, but we've lost the plot."
It might just be a commercial -- Australian Lamb's annual advertisement ahead of Australia Day on January 26 -- but it's struck a nerve with a lot of Australians this year.
As Australians deal with a record-breaking heatwave, environmental devastation and a sixth prime minister in just over a decade, the annual fierce debate over the country's national day might be the thing that pushes many of them over the edge.
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