Iran, Australia, Golden Globes: Your Monday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/briefing/iran-australia-golden-globes.html

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Good morning.

We’re covering Iran’s response to a general’s killing, the political dimension of Australia’s devastating wildfires, and wins for “Fleabag” and “1917” at the Golden Globes.

Two days after the U.S. killed a top Iranian commander, Tehran appeared on Sunday to all but abandon a landmark nuclear agreement that it reached in 2015 with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

Iran’s announcement — that its nuclear program “will have no limitations in production, including enrichment capacity” — was among the biggest consequences so far in the chaotic aftermath of the killing in Baghdad of the commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the country’s de facto No. 2 official.

Iran said it would return to the nuclear limits if American sanctions — which President Trump imposed on the country after withdrawing the U.S. from the nuclear deal in 2018 — were lifted. But amid widespread anger and mourning in Iran, Tehran is widely expected to hit back at American interests, and Mr. Trump has said the U.S. could strike sites in Iran if the country retaliates.

Responses: American allies in the Middle East, fearing they may pay a price for the killing of General Suleimani, have largely kept quiet about it. And the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has invited the Iranian foreign minister to Brussels for talks.

What’s next: Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi of Iraq is expected to sign a bill, approved by Parliament on Sunday, that would expel U.S. troops from the country. And a U.S.-led coalition says it’s ending its yearslong mission of attacking the Islamic State and training local forces in Syria and Iraq.

Analysis: Our chief White House correspondent writes that the fallout from the killing will test whether Mr. Trump’s critics — who have long argued that he was too erratic to face moments of crisis — were correct.

Opinion: Susan Rice, the U.S. national security adviser from 2013 to 2017, writes that while full-scale conflict with Iran is not inevitable, “the probability is higher than at any point in decades.”

The exceptionally brutal wildfires affecting Australia have so far consumed an area larger than Switzerland, killing 24 people since October and prompting thousands of evacuations from communities along the southeastern coast. The damage is expected to worsen in the coming weeks amid extremely arid conditions.

The government said over the weekend that it was calling up about 3,000 army reservists, along with aircraft and naval ships — its largest military deployment since World War II. But many Australians are angry over what they see as a nonchalant and ineffectual response to the blazes by Scott Morrison, the prime minister.

Some critics complain that Mr. Morrison, who took a vacation to Hawaii last month, has misread the depths of public anger. Others say he has minimized the connection between climate change and Australia’s extreme environmental conditions — even as the country just completed its hottest and driest year on record.

Map: See where the fires are burning.

Opinion: The Australian novelist Richard Flanagan writes that the refusal by Mr. Morrison’s government to take action on climate change is “eerily reminiscent of the Soviet Union in the 1980s, when the ruling apparatchiks were all-powerful but losing the fundamental, moral legitimacy to govern.”

Italy’s populist-led government is deep in a high-stakes fight over the future of a giant steelworks with a checkered environmental record. If the factory closes, it could affect the stability of the national economy and raise questions about the government’s ability to provide stability for foreign investors.

The fight over the steelworks is “an emblem for what ails Italy — declining industry, haphazard regulation and volatile politics,” writes our Rome bureau chief, Jason Horowitz.

Context: Over the past decade, Italy’s economy has experienced its lowest growth rates since the country formed in the 19th century, a leading Italian economist says. The steelworks, which employs more than 10,000 people, sits in a southern region that already has dizzying unemployment rates.

After he moved to Britain, Ghanem al-Masarir found his voice on YouTube, where his satirical videos about his native Saudi Arabia have been viewed more than 300 million times.

But after Mr. al-Masarir was quietly warned of a Saudi plot to kidnap him, he found that his smartphones were infected with spyware. Then the British police visited his home to deliver an official warning about a threat to his life.

Now he is suing Saudi Arabia in a British court. “You’re dealing essentially with the mafia,” he said. “Except they have diplomatic passports and a lot of money.”

Carlos Ghosn: Japanese officials on Sunday defended their justice system as fair, in the wake of the disgraced auto executive’s escape from the country last month. Mr. Ghosn is now in Lebanon — and his next move is anyone’s guess.

Croatia: In a rare victory for a leftist official in Central Europe, a former prime minister, Zoran Milanovic, won a contested presidential election on Sunday. His victory is significant partly because Croatia assumed the European Union presidency on Jan. 1, and the country will be tasked with overseeing Britain’s divorce from the bloc this month.

Drunken driver: A motorist with a blood-alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit plowed a car into young German tourists as they crossed a road in northern Italy on Sunday, killing six people and injuring 11 others.

Venezuela: Lawmakers aligned with the country’s repressive leader, Nicolás Maduro, blocked the re-election of Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader, as the head of the National Assembly, wresting control of the last political institution still dominated by the opposition.

Harvey Weinstein: A trial of the disgraced Hollywood mogul that begins in New York City today will be seen as a test of whether the legal system can deliver justice for victims who helped ignite the #MeToo movement.

Hong Kong: In the first major leadership shake-up in the semiautonomous territory after seven months of often-violent protests, the central Chinese government abruptly replaced its top Hong Kong representative.

Boeing: Regulators from Europe plan to fly to Seattle this week to test new software for the 737 Max, the jet involved in two deadly crashes. But new problems with the plane are said to be emerging, including concerns with the wiring that helps control its tail.

Veganism: A British court has ruled that ethical veganism qualifies under Britain’s Equality Act as a philosophical belief — and one that should be protected against workplace discrimination.

Snapshot: Above, a newborn girl in the Nunavik region of northern Quebec. Inuit midwives in Canada are reclaiming the right of pregnant women to choose to give birth in their hometown.

The Golden Globes: “Fleabag” and “1917,” Sam Mendes’s World War I epic, were among the winners. We have live coverage and a look at fashion highlights on the red carpet.

What we’re listening to: Terry Gross’s 2016 “Fresh Air” interview with the author Viet Thanh Nguyen, who is also a contributing opinion writer for The Times. Kevin McKenna, a deputy business editor, says, “I read his recent essay, in which he wrote that being able to show affection for his children is a luxury his refugee parents never had, and went back to this interview for more of his remarkable life story.”

Cook: A summer pasta of orecchiette, corn, jalapeño and feta is just as good with frozen sweet corn.

Read: Whatever your brand of crime story — creepy or comic — we have recommendations for you.

Smarter Living: If you’re flying with a cat or a dog, here are some useful things to have.

Much of the world just celebrated the New Year based on the solar calendar introduced by a 16th-century pope, Gregory XIII.

The medieval system works pretty well. But it requires every fourth year to be a leap year, and 2020 is one. We’ll get an extra day, Feb. 29, to bring the calendar back in line with the actual time it takes the Earth to go around the sun: 365.24 days.

To keep the calendar in balance, every century we skip leap year, and every fourth century we don’t. (For those of you planning far ahead, the next skip will be 2100.)

Another marker: The Earth’s elliptical orbit means that there’s a point when the planet is farthest from our star, and another when it is closest.

You may not have noticed, but that closest pass, known as perihelion, happened over the weekend. The farthest point will come in early July.

Looking for something sooner and more obvious to celebrate? Our next solar marker is an equinox. “Day” and “night” will be evenly split on March 19 or 20 (depending on your time zone).

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Mike

Thank youTo Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Andrea Kannapell, the Briefings editor, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode revisits a whistle-blower and his concerns about Boeing.• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Pewter or steel (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • The Times’s Science desk can help you sync your calendar with the solar system.