U.S. and Taliban leaders have agreed in principle to a plan that would lead to the full withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in exchange for concessions that would guarantee Afghan territory would not be used by terrorists. Concessions that are up for debate also include a Taliban ceasefire and agreements to direct talks with the Afghan government—two conditions that the Taliban has previously resisted.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) formally announced her 2020 presidential campaign on Sunday in her hometown of Oakland, CA to a crowd of over 20,000 people. She spoke openly about racism, police brutality, and the need for unity in America, and endorsed several policy proposals, including Medicare-for-all, reversing Republican tax cuts, debt-free college, universal pre-K, and tax breaks for middle class families.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited President Trump to deliver his State of the Union address on February 5th in the House Chamber. Pelosi originally planned to host the address on Tuesday, but postponed it (like a boss) during the shutdown.
Outgoing Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker told reporters that he “thinks” Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is nearing completion. On the other hand, Michael Cohen will testify behind closed doors to the House Intelligence Committee on February 8, so the congressional investigations are just heating up.
The U.S. has charged Chinese smartphone maker Huawei with stealing trade secrets from T-Mobile, and committing bank fraud by violating sanctions through their business with Iran. This is the latest escalation in tensions between the U.S. and China, and comes as the U.S. pushes other allies to keep Huawei from building a next-generation 5G network.
President Trump’s New York golf clubs just fired a dozen immigrant workers who were in the U.S. illegally, even though their managers knew about their legal status for over 12 years, which means they were violating the law. Reminder: Trump justified shutting down the government for over 30 days because of how bad he claims to think illegal immigration is.
Naomi Osaka became the first Asian tennis player to be ranked No. 1 in the world after winning the Australian Open—her second grand-slam championship after she beat Serena Williams in a controversial match at the U.S. Open last year. Meanwhile, Serbian tennis great Novak Djokovic won his record seventh Australian Open against Rafael Nadal. We at Crooked Media know a little more about tennis than football (heavy emphasis on “a little”). From Brian: pls stop subtweeting me in my own newsletter.
BuzzFeed employees have circulated a letter calling on the company to pay out accrued paid time off to the dozens of employees it laid off in recent days. BuzzFeed’s own community section has called out the company for the layoffs, too.
