Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo arrived in court in Madrid to face tax evasion charges which could result in an €18.8 million fine. He is widely expected to plead guilty in a pre-agreed deal that would hand him a 23-month jail sentence; however, convicts in Spain are usually not sent to jail for sentences under two years. Ronaldo is accused of avoiding paying tax in Spain between 2011 & 2014.

A Mexican journalist was found murdered in the first such case of 2019. Rafael Murua, a community radio station director, was found dead in a ditch late Sunday, after being reported missing. The country set a new homicide record for 2018 - registering 33,341 homicides last year, the most since national record-keeping began in 1997. The previous record was set in 2017, with 28,866 homicides.

The US will proceed with the formal extradition from Canada of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Canada’s ambassador to the US David MacNaughton was quoted confirming the same but he did not say when the request will be made. MacNaughton also said he had complained to the US that Canada was suffering from Chinese revenge for an arrest made at the US’s request.

The lawyer for Paul Whelan, accused of spying by Russia, said on Tuesday that his client had been misled before his arrest. Vladimir Zherebenkov, Whelan’s lawyer, said he believed that a thumb drive handed to him had contained cultural rather than secret information. The drive allegedly contains a list of all the employees of a secret Russian state agency.

A longer video released recently is being used as context for the viral story about a Native American veteran and a group of Catholic high school students. In the longer video, the man is seen approaching the student group as opposed to the teens approaching him. The video led to questioning of earlier news reports surrounding the incident which claimed the students instigated a confrontation.

The growing wave of Transportation Security Administration employees reporting sick reached 10 per cent Monday. The workers who screen passengers and their bags face missing another paycheck if the shutdown doesn’t end early this week. As per TSA, many of the workers say the financial hardship is preventing them from reporting to work.

A 12-year-old girl died and a 9-year-old girl was hospitalized after a snow fort they built collapsed on them outside of a church near Chicago on Sunday. Family members found the girls buried in the snow about an hour after they went outside of the church to play. An autopsy was scheduled to be conducted on Monday.

The historical park in Atlanta honoring the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr. has reopened for visitors and will stay that way through Super Bowl weekend in February. The National Park Service says a grant from The Delta Air Lines Foundation and revenue generated by its recreation fees have enabled it to open up the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park.

The toddler of a parent being arrested for shoplifting held up her hands when approaching officers during the incident. Officers later released body cam footage to show how the officers handled the situation. The child was guided by the officer and her Father in cuffs to her mother, who she then left with safely.

Tesla has been given the green light to start selling its Model 3 electric sedan in Europe. The Netherlands Vehicle Authority, which has the power to regulate on such matters in Europe, gave the go-ahead on Monday, paving the way for sales of Tesla’s most popular and competitively priced vehicle in one of the world’s major markets.

The Facebook created ’10 Year Challenge’ involves a user taking a picture from 10 years ago, comparing it to a current picture and then uploading the results on to a Facebook post. A new report claims user selfies could help in training Facebook’s facial recognition artificial intelligence and could also be used by Facebook for commercial purposes.

On the steps of the South Carolina State Capitol, Senators Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders on Monday joined local leaders of the state NAACP chapter and called for an end to racial injustice. Only one of them, Bernie Sanders, leveled a direct, personal attack on President Trump.

California Democrat Senator Kamala Harris launched her 2020 campaign for the White House on Monday. The former California state attorney general has become the fifth Democratic candidate to enter the 2020 race. Harris plans on reducing cost of living with a middle-class tax credit.

President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence made a brief visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. national monument in Washington. The duo placed a wreath and then participated in a moment of silence for the civil rights leader. Earlier, Trump tweeted honoring King ’for standing up for the self-evident truth’ that ’we are all created equal by God’.

Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s attorney, said his team reached out to Robert Mueller’s office after a BuzzFeed News article claimed the president told Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. Giuliani didn’t provide details about what was said or indicate whether discussions were held.

A court in Tokyo reject Carlos Ghosn’s latest request for bail on Tuesday, despite the ousted Nissan chairman offering to wear an electronic ankle tag. The ruling raises the likelihood that the 64-year-old executive will remain in custody until his trial. Bail is rarely granted for defendants in Japan without a confession.

The IMF on Monday cut its world economic growth forecasts for 2019 and 2020, due to weakness in Europe and some emerging markets. IMF also cited a bigger-than-expected slowdown in China’s economy and a possible ’No Deal’ Brexit as risks to its outlook. It predicted the global economy to grow at 3.5 per cent in 2019 and 3.6 per cent in 2020.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to unveil her Brexit ’Plan B’ to parliament on Monday. Britain will leave the EU on March 29 without a deal unless MPs can force a delay or come up with an alternative plan that Brussels is also happy with. May spoke to EU leaders Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk on Friday to discuss where to go next on Brexit.

China’s economy cooled in the fourth quarter under pressure from faltering domestic demand and bruising US tariffs. Fourth-quarter GDP grew at the slowest pace since the global financial crisis, easing to 6.4 per cent on-year. Asian markets were largely positive in spite of the data - after Chinese government officials indicated the slowdown was stabilizing and the impact from it was manageable.

Japanese banking giant SBI Group has invested $15 million in Swiss crypto startup Tangem. Tangem’s cryptocurrency wallet mimics a bank card in that it allows a user to make off-chain physical transactions. It will use the capital to expand into areas such as stablecoins, ICOs, tokenized asset offerings, and digital identity.