THE BIG STORY

Boris Johnson has warned Donald Trump not to destroy Iran’s cultural sites

President Donald Trump threatened to hit areas of important historical value in Iran if the country retaliates over the killing of military commander Qassem Soleimani.

Trump tweeted on Saturday that if Iran was to strike any Americans or US assets, the US had targeted 52 Iranian sites that would be “HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.”

A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged restraint and said, “There are international conventions in place that prevent the destruction of cultural heritage.”

Trump added to his threat a day later, saying, “They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people... And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.” (It, of course, works precisely that way: attacking cultural sites is prohibited under the Geneva Convention).

👉Meanwhile, back in the US, Soleimani’s killing has drawn a sharp contrast between Democrats running for president — Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang came out unequivocally against the attack, while others had different degrees of contention.

Peter Nicholls / Getty Images

IMPEACHMENT TODAY

Hail to the Chief Justice. John Roberts is here to tap his little hammer and chew gum. And he's all out of gum. Chief Justice Roberts will be running the show during the impeachment trial in the Senate. In today's episode, we discuss what you should know about him. Listen and subscribe.

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

America has convicted Harvey Weinstein. Will the legal system?

The criminal trial of Harvey Weinstein began yesterday, more than two years after his name and his case changed how we view Hollywood, and revised the way we talk and think about sexual assault in our daily lives.

Even though dozens of women have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Weinstein, the case against him in New York is quite narrow and will rest on the allegations of two women.

There’s a gap between the legal system and the culture at large. The exposés on Weinstein sparked a worldwide movement against sexual abuse. For millions of women who have experienced sexual violence, there is no question of Weinstein's guilt — the question is if the legal system will catch up with a rapidly evolving culture against abuse.

Read our global women's rights reporter Nishita Jha’s first dispatch from the Weinstein trial.

👉You should know: On the first day of his trial in New York, Weinstein was charged in Los Angeles for rape and sexual assault.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

SNAPSHOTS

The Trump administration will begin deporting asylum-seekers from Mexico to Guatemala. The expansion of a controversial program to stop the flow of refugees and immigrants now means the government will deport Mexican nationals — including families — who come to the US southern border seeking asylum to Guatemala.

The man dubbed the “most prolific rapist in British legal history” was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison. Reynhard Sinaga's crimes included 136 counts of rape, eight counts of attempted rape, 14 counts of sexual assault, and two counts of assault by penetration.

A man is accused of killing his Grindr date and eating part of his body. A warning that this story contains some difficult details. Court documents revealed gruesome details in the killing of 25-year-old Kevin Bacon, who went missing on Christmas Eve.

Viral Australian bushfire maps are spreading outdated, confusing and false information. For understandable reasons, maps of Australia keep going viral. But think twice before you hit share, because the ones that go viral may not be relevant anymore.

A “deeply disturbing and chaotic” video of Tom Hanks’s son Chet speaking patois at the Golden Globes is going viral. Look, I don’t know what to tell you about this one.

DISINFORMATION FOR HIRE

How a new breed of PR firms is selling lies online

I’m not sure PR firms ever had a good reputation — after all, their job is to traverse in spin, or at the most benign, a selective kind of storytelling. But there is a new kind of PR firm out there: companies offering professional disinformation services.

For the right price, you can get fake accounts, trolling, or AI-generated articles that manipulate search rankings. One firm promised to “use every tool and take every advantage available in order to change reality according to our client's wishes.”

Jane Lytvynenko and Craig Silverman teamed up with the Reporter, an investigative news site in Taiwan, to look at this growing threat.

From the piece: “If disinformation in 2016 was characterized by Macedonian spammers pushing pro-Trump fake news and Russian trolls running rampant on platforms, 2020 is shaping up to be the year communications pros for hire provide sophisticated online propaganda operations to anyone willing to pay.”

CASE CRACKED

This hard boiled egg hack is making me sad about all the time I’ve lost

Look, I don’t want to dwell on this, but I take roughly 25,000 years to peel a hard boiled egg, and as it turns out, I have been wasting my life.

A video is rightfully going viral for showing the process lasting about nine seconds, and if you’ll excuse me, I have some tears to shed about being in the dark ages for so long. I saw the light.

I hope you get to be the most generous version of yourself today,

Elamin