Rantt Rundown, Rapidfire Edition

A quick overview of some top stories.​

1. The Mueller team has zeroed in on a new target: Devin Nunes. The former House Intelligence Committee Chairman, who has been one of the investigation’s main detractors, is now under the radar for a meeting he took with foreign officials days before President Trump’s inauguration.
2. The Washington Post reported that Trump has gone to “extraordinary lengths” to cover up a meeting he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including confiscating the interpreter’s notes and not allowing any discussions of the meeting.
3. Two courts have struck down a rule by the Trump administration to allow employers to deny birth control to their employees. They were set to take effect today.
4. The ongoing row over Syria between the US and Turkey over Syria has escalated. Trump tweeted that he would “devastate Turkey economically” if Turkey attacks Kurdish forces in the area ahead of his planned withdrawal of American forces. Turkey was not impressed.
5. The China-US trade deficit has grown to its highest level since 2006, rendering Trump’s trade war claims rather useless. This is no sign of a turn in China’s fortunes, however, as a drop in China’s export figures indicates further signs of China’s slowing.
6. The mayor of the Polish city of Gdansk has died after being stabbed at a charity event. Authorities arrested a 27-year-old man with a previous criminal background.
7. A British-Iranian mother imprisoned in Iran on charges of spying has begun a three-day strike. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who denies the charges, has reportedly been denied medical care; prison officials have not allowed a doctor to examine lumps in her breast and other health issues.
8. Facebook’s problems are escalating, as Germany seeks to ban the social media giant from sharing user data with third parties. This could inhibit it from offering targeting strategies to advertisers on its platform, a major part of its revenue strategy.
9. A New Jersey man was shot and killed by police after he took two women hostage at a UPS facility. The hostage-taker reportedly had a relationship with one of the women.
10. The voice recorded for the Lion Air jet that plunged in the Java Sea in October has been found, along with some of the 189 people who perished. The black box recorder already showed that a machine malfunction may have been to blame for the crash, one of the worst in Indonesia’s history.

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