A Model Detective. A Small-Time Thief. How 2 Lives Collided in a Deadly Robbery in Queens.

In North Carolina, Investigators Find Ballot ‘Scheme’ in House Race

Majority of European firms have no CO2 reduction targets

Only one in three firms have climate goals set to go beyond 2025, report finds

Most European companies have no target for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions even though 80% see climate change as a business risk, a survey has found.

Among those that have set climate goals, only one in three stretch beyond 2025, according to the annual Carbon Disclosure Project report.

Southern Baptists Announce Plans to Address Sexual Abuse

Podemos was the dazzling new force in Spanish politics. What went wrong? | Giles Tremlett

It was only five years ago that Spain’s break-out party Podemos became a dazzling new lodestar for Europe’s lost and troubled left. But with a snap election just weeks away, it now risks a crash as spectacular as its rise. Has the leftwing populist model of ponytailed rebel Pablo Iglesias and his gang of talented young thinkers, so admired by many Jeremy Corbyn backers and others around Europe, proved a failure?

Polling suggests the party is in deep trouble. Podemos once led the polls and very nearly snatched leadership of Spain’s left from prime minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party at the 2016 elections, but it is now only the voters’ fourth favourite party. The meltdown means it is slated to lose half its deputies, while Sánchez gallops ahead, taking well over twice as many votes as Podemos on 28 April.

16 US states sue over Trump border wall emergency declaration

Coalition led by California accuses the president of ‘unilaterally robbing taxpayer funds’

A coalition of 16 US states led by California has launched legal action against Donald Trump’s administration over his decision to declare a national emergency in order to fund a wall along the Mexico border.

The lawsuit was filed on Monday in the US district court for the northern district of California after Trump invoked emergency powers on Friday when Congress declined his request for $5.7bn to help create his signature policy promise.

The Creeping Liberalism in American Islam

'A free pass for mobs to kill': India urged to stem cow vigilante violence

Human Rights Watch blames police inertia and government failures for lack of justice for those affected

Hindu cow vigilante groups in India are escaping punishment for lynchings because of police inertia and complicity by local officials, leaving the family of those affected without justice, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.

The report urges the government to prosecute mob violence by cow protection groups that have targeted Muslims, Dalits and other minorities in the five years since the BJP came to power.

Rod Rosenstein, key figure behind Mueller inquiry, expected to step down in mid-March

Justice department says deputy attorney general who brought in special counsel is likely to leave in mid-March

Rod Rosenstein, the US deputy attorney general who appointed a special counsel to investigate possible ties between Russia and President Donald Trump’s campaign, is expected to step down by mid March, a Justice Department official has said.

Rosenstein had been expected to depart shortly after new Attorney General William Barr assumed office. Barr was confirmed for the role by the US Senate last week.

Betsy DeVos vs. Student Veterans

Syrian Kurdish leader calls for international force to protect Kurds

Ilham Ahmed says Kurds want observers on the border to ensure Turkey does not attack

The leader of the Syrian Kurds has called for a small international observer force to be stationed on the Turkey-Syria border to protect Kurds from what she says is the threat of crimes against humanity committed by Turkish forces.

Ilham Ahmed is co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council – the political arm of the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which have been responsible for liberating much of north-eastern Syria from Islamic State.

Kamala Harris Faces Questions About ‘Democratic Socialist’ Label and Jussie Smollett in N.H. Debut

Bulk carrier runs aground on Solomon Islands reef spilling oil

Cyclone delays cleanup after ship runs aground in rough seas near Rennell Island

Solomon Islands authorities are scrambling to clean up an oil spill caused after a bulk carrier came aground about a fortnight ago on a coral reef on the southern coast.

Category 2 cyclone Oma and rough weather had delayed efforts to salvage the ship, MV Solomon Trader.

A public holiday and gold-plated gun: Saudi crown prince feted on Asia tour

Mohammed bin Salman courted by Imran Khan in Pakistan as part of what analysts call a Gulf pivot towards Asia

Mohammad bin Salman has been welcomed with a fighter jet escort, a gold-plated submachine gun and Pakistan’s highest civilian honour on the lavish first leg of an Asian tour aimed at rehabilitating the image of the Saudi Arabian crown prince five months after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

After being personally chauffeured from the airport by the country’s prime minister, Imran Khan, bin Salman signed agreements worth $20bn on Monday, a crucial injection of funds for an ailing economy suffering a foreign-currency crunch and which is currently negotiating its 13th IMF bailout in 40 years.

The Vatican’s Secret Rules for Priests Who Have Children

Amazon Resets Its Film Operation After Rough Year at Box Office

Justin Trudeau's top adviser resigns as 'political meddling' scandal widens

Exit by Gerald Butts comes days after veterans affairs minister resigned from Cabinet

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s top adviser has resigned while denying allegations that he pressured Canada’s former attorney general to avoid prosecuting a major Canadian engineering company.

Principal secretary Gerald Butts has been Trudeau’s closest adviser and best friend since university, and his resignation over the widening scandal was a significant blow to the prime minister, who is facing an election this year.

How the world got hooked on palm oil

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there grew a magical fruit. This fruit could be squeezed to produce a very special kind of oil that made cookies more healthy, soap more bubbly and crisps more crispy. The oil could even make lipstick smoother and keep ice-cream from melting. Because of these wondrous qualities, people came from around the world to buy the fruit and its oil.

In the places where the fruit came from, people burned down the forest so they could plant more trees that grew the fruit – making lots of nasty smoke and sending all of the creatures of the forest scurrying away. When the trees were burned, they emitted a gas that heated up the air. Then everybody was upset, because they loved the forest’s creatures and thought the temperature was warm enough already. A few people decided they shouldn’t use the oil any more, but mostly things went on as before, and the forest kept burning.

Huawei founder: US cannot crush technology firm

Ren Zhengfei hits back at criminal indictments he calls politically motivated

The US cannot crush Huawei, the company’s founder has insisted, as he hit back against criminal indictments levelled at the firm and allegations that it poses a security threat.

Washington has warned allies off using Huawei products in recent weeks. But Ren Zhengfei, whose daughter Meng Wanzhou – a fellow senior Huawei executive – is among those charged by US prosecutors, told the BBC on Monday that the firm would survive the pressure.

Police search for missing UK and French tourists at beach near Port Macquarie

Items belonging to Hugo Palmer and Erwan Ferrieux found at Shelley beach on NSW mid-north coast

A British tourist and a French tourist are missing at a beach on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

Personal items belonging to Hugo Palmer and Erwan Ferrieux were found by walkers on Shelley Beach, near Port Macquarie, 390km north of Sydney, at sunrise on Monday.

Huawei Founder Slams U.S. Charges as ‘Politically Motivated’

George Mendonsa, 95, Most Likely the Sailor in a Famous Photo, Dies

Labor demands investigation into ministers Cash and Keenan over AFP raid on AWU – politics live

Earlier Mathias Cormann admitted he books holidays by calling CEO of travel company, who is also Liberal party treasurer, directly. All the day’s events live

6.10am GMT

Integrity campaigners have welcomed parliament’s passing of new protections designed to shield corporate whistleblowers from recrimination.

The bill strengthens the protections available to corporate whistleblowers on a number of fronts.

5.57am GMT

Adani has responded to the Queensland department of environment and science’s final report into its planned Galilee coal mine, and the fate of the Black-throated finch that lives in the area (spoiler, Adani is NOT happy):

“Late last night Queensland Government’s Department of Environment and Science sent us the final report from the external review of our Black-throated Finch Management Plan.

“To say we’re disappointed in the final version is an understatement. The department has ignored the feedback that we provided to them last week on the plan and has not addressed the issues we raised.

“The final report still contains false and inaccurate statements about the management plan, including hysterical claims on local extinction, which directly conflict with the scientific advice the Queensland and Australian governments have relied upon to date.

“We reject the report and its findings in their entirety.

The report still contains unverified opinions regarding climate change and other projects in the Galilee Basin which are completely outside the scope of the Black-throated Finch Management Plan.

“This still reads as an anti-Adani lobbying document, dressed up as science.

“We note that one of the few things that has changed from the draft to the final version, is the removal of formal references to the work of April Reside, a person who has been actively campaigning against the Carmichael Project for years.

“On many occasions we have stated our grave concerns that a person such as Prof Brendan Wintle who leads an organisation with individuals who have made anti-coal, anti-mining and anti-Adani statements in the past, could not possibly lead a review of our Black-throated Finch Management Plan without such strongly held views prejudicing the contents of the report.

“We remain committed to advancing our project and to this end we will continue to work with the Queensland Government so that these plans can be concluded and we can get on with delivering the thousands of jobs our project will deliver.

“One thing is for certain – we’re not going anywhere. We’re committed to the regions. We’re committed to providing desperately needed jobs. We’re committed to delivering the Carmichael Project for regional Queensland.

“The Queensland Government keeps shifting the goal posts for Adani. We are simply seeking a fair go.”

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Another Migrant With an Illness Has Died in Border Patrol Custody

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