10 things you need to know today: January 7, 2019

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1. Trump considers national-emergency declaration to get wall built
2. Bohemian Rhapsody wins Golden Globes upset
3. Ocasio-Cortez: 'No question' Trump is a racist
4. Trump, China express optimism as trade talks start
5. Syria militia group says it captured 2 Americans who joined ISIS
6. U.S. confirms killing of USS Cole bombing plotter in airstrike
7. Trump says he's in 'no hurry' to name new Cabinet officials
8. Iconic California highway shut down by mudslides
9. Macron accuses yellow-vest protesters of resuming 'extreme violence'
10. Gabon says it put down attempted coup against ailing leader

published 7 January 2019

1. Trump considers national-emergency declaration to get wall built

President Trump met Sunday with White House staff at Camp David to discuss his promised wall on the southern border, among other pressing topics. Trump's demand for $5.6 billion to help build the wall, now described as a "steel barrier," is the sticking point preventing a spending deal to end the partial government shutdown, now in its third week. The meeting came a day after two hours of negotiations led by Vice President Mike Pence failed to break the stalemate. In an effort to force Democrats to budge, Trump said he is considering declaring a national emergency to free up money to start building the wall without congressional approval. "We're looking at a national emergency because we have a national emergency," Trump told reporters outside the White House as he returned Sunday evening.

Bohemian Rhapsody was a surprise winner at the 76th annual Golden Globes Sunday, winning Best Motion Picture — Drama over favorite A Star Is Born. The Queen biopic's star, Rami Malek, won for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama. Green Book won Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy, while The Wife's Glenn Close won Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama, and Vice's Christian Bale won Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy. Roma gave Netflix its first Golden Globe for film. Alfonso Cuarón won Best Director — Motion Picture, and Roma was named Best Foreign Language Film. Netflix's The Kominsky Method won for Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy, and FX's The Americans won for Best Television Series — Drama.

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When asked by 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper if she thinks President Trump is "a racist," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) didn't mince words. "Yeah," she replied. "No question." In an interview that aired Sunday night, Ocasio-Cortez said the "words [Trump] uses" are "historic dog whistles of white supremacy. When you look at how he reacted to the Charlottesville incident, where neo-Nazis murdered a woman, versus how he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking legal refuge on our borders, it's night and day." Trump "certainly didn't invent racism," but he has given a voice to it and "expanded it and created a platform for those things," Ocasio-Cortez said. In a statement, a White House deputy press secretary told 60 Minutes Trump has "repeatedly condemned racism and bigotry in all forms."

President Trump said Sunday that trade talks with China were going well and that data showing a weakening Chinese economy could be making Beijing more eager to reach a deal to end a trade war with the U.S. "I think China wants to get it resolved. Their economy's not doing well," Trump said. "I think that gives them a great incentive to negotiate." U.S. officials are meeting with Chinese counterparts in Beijing this week in the first face-to-face talks since Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in December to a 90-day truce without any more of the rising tariffs that have upset global stocks. Just Friday, China cut bank reserve requirements in the government's latest attempt to address the threat of financial turmoil.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, a militia group, announced Sunday that it arrested two Americans, including a 34-year-old man from Houston who sent a résumé and cover letter to land a job teaching English with the Islamic State and another man who was fighting for the Islamist terrorist organization. The Americans, identified as Warren Christopher Clark and Zaid Abed al-Hamid, were captured with other foreign militants during an operation by the Kurdish-led, U.S.-supported Syrian Democratic Forces in ISIS's last stronghold in northern Syria, according to a statement by the militia group. If the two are extradited to the U.S., they will be just the 15th and 16th American adults to return from joining ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

President Trump and U.S. Central Command on Sunday confirmed the death in a U.S. airstrike of an al Qaeda commander linked to the deadly USS Cole bombing in 2000. The suspected plotter, Jamal al-Badawi, was on the FBI's most wanted list for his alleged role in the attack, in which two suicide bombers in a small boat attacked the Navy destroyer during refueling in Yemen. The blast killed 17 American sailors and injured nearly 40 others. "Our GREAT MILITARY has delivered justice for the heroes lost and wounded in the cowardly attack on the USS Cole," President Trump tweeted. "We have just killed the leader of that attack, Jamal al-Badawi."

President Trump said Sunday he is "in no hurry" to nominate official replacements for several Cabinet-level positions now occupied by officials acting in a temporary capacity. "Well, I'm in no hurry. I have acting (administration officials). And my actings are doing really great," Trump said at the White House before heading to a White House staff retreat at Camp David. Currently, Trump is served by acting interior and defense secretaries, an acting White House chief of staff, an acting Environmental Protection Agency administrator, and an acting U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He also has an acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, although Trump has nominated former Attorney General William Barr to fill the post permanently.

Parts of the Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles were shut down over the weekend by mudslides and flooding, the California Department of Transportation said Sunday. Some stretches of the iconic coastal road were expected to remain closed until at least Monday. Rocky debris blocked stretches of the road, and cars and roads in the city of Malibu were covered with mud. The damage was driven by heavy rains on Saturday, and the mudslides were exacerbated by the loss of vegetation in last year's massive Woolsey Fire, which burned nearly 100,000 acres and killed three people in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Ventura County Fire Department Capt. Dennis O'Shea said authorities were alerted to the catastrophe when drivers "rang our doorbell to tell us there was flooding and people were trapped."

French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that "yellow vest" protesters continued their violent street demonstrations over the weekend, despite government efforts to move past the disruptions in the new year. Macron's government hardened its policies against the movement after it appeared to lose momentum over the holidays, but anti-government protesters on Saturday forced their way into a government ministry compound using a forklift, burned cars on the famed Champs Elysees, and clashed with police on a bridge over the Seine. "Once again, the Republic was attacked with extreme violence — its guardians, its representatives, its symbols," he tweeted.

Gabon's government reportedly put down an attempted coup early Monday, arresting junior army officers who took over state broadcasting offices and a major road in the capital, Libreville, government spokesman Guy-Betrand Mapangou told Radio France International. Earlier Monday a soldier identifying himself as Republican Guard commander Lt. Obiang Ondo Kelly, flanked by two other armed soldiers, read a statement claiming the military had seized control of the oil-rich West African nation's government. He announced plans for a "national council of restoration" after decades of fraud accusations against the ruling Bongo family. The government spokesman said ailing President Ali Bongo remained in control.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.