Your Monday Briefing

Monday, Jan 11, 2021 | View in browser

Good morning.

We’re covering moves in the U.S. Congress to charge President Trump, Indonesia’s poor air safety record and ideas from the creator of the web on fixing our digital world.

By Carole Landry
President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.  Doug Mills/The New York Times

A second impeachment for Trump

Momentum for impeaching President Trump a second time was growing rapidly over the weekend among Democrats and some Republicans, angry over Mr. Trump’s role in the assault on the Capitol building.
Representative Ted Lieu, Democrat of California, announced that the article of impeachment drafted by him and other House Democrats had drawn more than 190 co-sponsors, and that the measure would be introduced in the House of Representatives today.
A vote could come as soon as Tuesday on charging Mr. Trump with inciting a mob that went on to attack the Capitol. But top Democrats want to avoid hamstringing the first days of Joe Biden’s presidency with a Senate trial, so the House could delay sending the article to the Senate, which would postpone the trial.
Arrests: A man who had an assault rifle was charged with threatening Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, after he sent a text message saying he would put “a bullet in her noggin on Live TV. ” Dozens of Trump supporters who took part in the attack on the Capitol have been arrested, including an armed Alabama man who had Molotov cocktails in his car and a West Virginia lawmaker charged with illegally entering the Capitol. (There’s more on the Capitol siege in our Back Story below).
Indonesian search and rescue teams on Sunday, carrying body bags to be examined by investigators in Jakarta.  Ed Wray/Getty Images

Indonesia’s dangerous skies

On Saturday, Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 crashed into the Java Sea a few minutes after taking off in heavy rain. The Boeing 737-500 series passenger jet carrying 62 people, including six crew members, lost more than 10,000 feet in altitude within a minute.
The cause of the crash is not yet known. Indonesian investigators have confirmed where the plane’s data recorders are in the watery crash site and hope to recover the black boxes soon.
But there is no question that Indonesia’s skies remain some of the world’s most dangerous, tainted by a history of poor safety regulations that has dogged domestic airlines for years.
The plane: The jet that crashed was a 26-year-old Boeing workhorse without the new technology that plagued the 737 Max. Here’s what to know about the plane.
The National University of Singapore assigned students to different zones on campus and imposed stiff penalties for breaking its coronavirus rules.  Ore Huiying for The New York Times

Singapore universities have kept the virus at bay

Not one person has been found to have contracted the coronavirus at any of Singapore’s three major universities. Their secret: technology to enforce social distancing, tough penalties and students willing to comply.
One other major reason for the universities’ success is the aggressive pandemic response in society at large, experts say. The government offers free testing and medical care, and it quickly isolates infected people and traces their contacts. It punishes those found to have violated restrictions, including by deporting foreign nationals and revoking work passes.
Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.
In other developments:

■ The new variant pummeling Britain has already been found in about 45 countries, from Singapore to Oman to Jamaica, but many countries are not doing enough genetic surveillance of virus samples — effectively leaving them flying blind, with little sense of how bad the problem may be.

■ Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said he believed that theaters and other venues in America could reopen “some time in the fall of 2021,” depending on the success of the country’s vaccination rollout.

Pope Francis’s personal physician, who had been hospitalized for cancer treatment, died on Saturday as a result of the coronavirus.

If you have 6 minutes, this is worth it

He created the web. Now he wants to fix it.

Lola and Pani for The New York Times
Tim Berners-Lee, the man behind the creation of the World Wide Web three decades ago, believes the online world has gone astray. Too much power and too much personal data, he says, reside with tech giants like Google and Facebook. Fueled by vast troves of data, he says, they have become surveillance platforms and gatekeepers of innovation.
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Here’s what else is happening

U.S.-Taiwan: The U.S. said that it would relax its restrictions on meetings between American officials and their counterparts in Taiwan as the Trump administration seeks to lock in a tougher line against Beijing in its final days. The Biden administration could easily reverse the move.
Hong Kong website blocked: Users of major mobile carriers can no longer access a service that, inspired by the pro-democracy protests of 2019, detailed the personal information of police officers. The blockage is a possible sign that the city is turning to the censorship used in mainland China.
Pakistan power outage: Most of the country, including its capital and many of its other major cities, lost power early Sunday. The cause was not immediately clear. Initial reports said that the breakdown was traced to a power station in southern Sindh Province that ultimately affected the entire transmission system.
U.S.-China: In a move aimed at the Trump administration, China has issued an order that empowers Beijing to tell companies to ignore foreign restrictions and allows them to sue global businesses that comply with Washington.
Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times
Snapshot: Above, a protest camp set up by farmers in India. For six weeks, tens of thousands of farmers have choked the main entry points to Delhi to protest Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effort to reshape the country’s agriculture.
Neil Sheehan: The Times reporter who obtained the Pentagon Papers — the secret history of U.S. decision-making on Vietnam — died on Thursday at 84. The story about how he pulled off the blockbuster scoop can now be told.
What we’re watching: This surprisingly personal video by Arnold Schwarzenegger, about his experiences as a child in postwar Austria in light of the Capitol riot.
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Now, a break from the news

Con Poulos for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Jerrie-Joy Redman-Lloyd.
Cook: This spicy white bean soup is a poem in a pot, filled with winter greens, spiked with ginger and red-pepper flakes, and rounded out with only a little ground turkey.
Watch: Were you let down by “Wonder Woman 1984”? There are plenty of excellent and entertaining alternatives to stream. Here are six great superhero movies.
Do: Your goal for the new year will be closer to your reach if you ask yourself: How can I make this easier?
Whether you prefer cookies or comedies, At Home has ideas on what to read, cook, watch and do while staying safe at home.

And now for the Back Story on …

Covering the U.S. Capitol siege

Many of the reporters who covered the storming of the seat of Congress last week did their jobs a few feet from drawn weapons. Others were faced with Trump supporters, angry with the news media. We interviewed 11 journalists from a variety of outlets who covered the events. Here are excerpts from what they said.
Extremists backing President Trump smashed TV equipment and attacked an Associated Press photographer outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.  Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press
Donie O’Sullivan, 29, CNN: We got to the barrier at the base of the Capitol as they broke through. It was a dramatic moment, but also surprisingly undramatic in that, you know, there were obviously not sufficient numbers of police or barricades.
Kadia Goba, Axios: Capitol Police came on the speaker to say there had been a breach. You go in this marble building, it seems sacred to the people that work there. You just don’t think of intruders gaining access to that portion of the building.
Marcus DiPaola, freelancer: This guy grabs me by the shoulder and he’s like, “Who do you work for?” I’m like, “I’m a freelance photographer.” He’s like, “Have you ever worked for CNN?” And then he pulled me out of the way, and he charges in.
Zoeann Murphy, The Washington Post: One of the Trump supporters who’s been participating in the screaming at police pulls out her cellphone and says: “Oh, my God, guys, listen up. The president tweeted. He says we’re a country of law and order, and, um, I think we should go.” She read the tweet out loud maybe 15 times. It was so clear that, even if the president wasn’t intentionally giving direction, people were receiving it as direction. And then that area dispersed quite a bit.
Robert Moore, Britain’s ITV: I went to sleep around 3 or 4 a.m. and was up a couple of hours later. What has surprised me is the level of interest in Europe, and in Britain, in particular, with the events here. This is seen as a seminal story, one that shatters the myth about the stability of American democracy.

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

— Carole

Thank you
To Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh for the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.
P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about the online planning and on-the-ground failures that contributed to Trump supporters’ attack on the U.S. Capitol.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Comic book installment (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Matt Thompson, the editor in chief at Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, is joining The Times as editor of Headway, our new journalism initiative to investigate a range of economic, social, health, infrastructural and environmental challenges.
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