|  | | | | | | | | | Highlights | | | | | | | | | | Deepening political crisis in Virginia is threatening the Democrat’s hold on governorship. Governor Ralph Northam, a former U.S. Army physician who took office a year ago, has been fighting for his political life after a racist photo from his medical school yearbook page was made public last Friday. But the upheaval has deepened: the attorney general, Mark Herring, has admitted to wearing blackface at a college party and the lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax, has been accused of sexual assault. Fairfax and Herring are first and second in line to succeed Northam as governor should he resign. Kirk Cox, the Republican speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, is third.
| | | | | | | | U.S. border officials don’t share President Trump’s zeal for a border wall, say lawmakers who attended a classified briefing by Customs and Border Protection agents. Officials have described a multi-pronged strategy for tightening the southern border with Mexico that did not focus mainly on a massive wall. “What they said over again was technology,” Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said. “They don’t rule out barriers, they don’t rule out fences. But that isn’t the first priority.”
| | | | Russia says it would be prepared to consider new proposals to replace a suspended Cold War-era nuclear pact. Russia suspended the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty at the weekend after Washington announced it would withdraw in six months unless Russia ends what it says are violations of the pact. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov says they would consider a broader treaty that includes more countries.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | World | | Indonesian police found 193 Bangladeshis locked up in a shop house after human traffickers had lured them with the promise of getting them to Malaysia, an immigration official has said. The men, who were described as in a healthy condition when they were found on Tuesday night, had been taken to an immigration detention center and would be sent back to Bangladesh. | | | | Prime Minister Theresa May is in Brussels to plead with EU leaders to change the Brexit divorce deal. European officials have offered little hope they were willing to do so, with European Council President Donald Tusk channeling his frustration with unusually strong words, saying he wondered what “that special place in hell looks like, for those who promoted Brexit.” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn set out five conditions for Labour to support a deal, including a “permanent and comprehensive” customs union with the bloc, which May has ruled out. A government source said a breakthrough is not expected.
| | | | A large number of prisoners in Iran will be pardoned in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Iranian revolution, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on his Twitter account. The number of prisoners that will be pardoned was not announced, but Iranian media said around 50,000 prisoners will enjoy “the Islamic clemency”. | | | | | | .@Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been imprisoned in Myanmar for 423 days. Follow updates on the case: https://reut.rs/2DeAoJr 7:02 AM - 7 Feb 2019 | | | | | | | | | | | Business | | BB&T will buy SunTrust Banks for about $28 billion in an all-stock deal, creating the sixth largest U.S. lender in the biggest bank deal since the financial crisis. The combined company will operate under a new name and have around $442 billion in assets, $301 billion in loans and $324 billion in deposits. 3 Min Read | | | | Twitter forecast first-quarter revenue that was below analyst estimates on Thursday and said the number of users fell in the fourth quarter, sending its shares down 6 percent in premarket trading. 3 min read | | | | Facebook has been ordered to curb its data collection practices in Germany after a landmark ruling that the world’s largest social network abused its market dominance to gather information about users without their consent.
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