Kamala Harris officially enters 2020 presidential race ... New video gives context to teen’s confrontation with activist ... Xi warns China to keep ‘political security’ in faltering economy

Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.

Top story: Missile site exposed as Trump-Kim summit nears

US experts have revealed the existence of a previously undeclared missile site in North Korea, said to house medium-range Nodong ballistic missiles that could reach South Korea, Japan or Guam, a US territory. The report on the seven sq mile (18 sq km) Sino-ri site, one of 20 such sites that North Korea is suspected of failing to declare, comes weeks before Donald Trump is expected to meet Kim Jong-un for a second summit on denuclearisation.

Never declared. Analysts at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which produced the report, said the fact that the base was never declared meant it did “not appear to be the subject of denuclearisation negotiations”.

Kamala Harris officially enters 2020 presidential race

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Harris speaks to reporters at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington. Photograph: Al Drago/Getty Images

The California senator Kamala Harris has announced she will seek the Democratic presidential nomination, joining an already crowded and diverse field of candidates vying for the chance to run against Trump in 2020. The daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, Harris will formally launch her campaign at a rally in her home city of Oakland, California, on Sunday. While Republicans were quick to criticise her “radically liberal voting record” in the US Senate, Harris will also face questions from progressives about her record on criminal justice during her tenure as California’s attorney general.

New video gives context to teen’s confrontation with activist

Play Video 1:28 Fresh footage gives more detail on confrontation between Native American and teenagers – video

Fresh footage of an apparent confrontation between a Native American activist and a Kentucky schoolboy has provided extra context to the incident in Washington DC last Friday, which is being touted as symbolic of deepening social and racial divisions. Members of another protest group, the Black Hebrew Israelites, may have been largely responsible for sparking the standoff between schoolboys from the private, all-male Covington Catholic high school, who were attending an anti-abortion march, and activists taking part in an indigenous peoples’ march.

Competing claims. The controversial video showed Nick Sandmann, a student in a Maga cap, in an apparent face-off with Nathan Phillips, an Omaha tribe elder. Phillips claimed afterwards that he intervened to prevent the schoolboys “attacking … four black individuals”, while Sandmann said in a statement that he was the one playing peacemaker.

Xi warns China to keep ‘political security’ in faltering economy

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Xi warned Communist party officials of an ‘ideological struggle’ taking place online. Photograph: Xinhua/Barcroft Images

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has urged officials to maintain “political security” as the country’s economy falters amid its trade war with the US. Last year the Chinese economy grew at its slowest rate since 1990, raising fears in Beijing that the Communist regime could face unrest and opposition. Speaking to senior provincial leaders and ministers on Monday, Xi warned of an “ideological struggle” on the internet, where “domestic and foreign forces are trying to develop supporters of their values”.

Black swans. Xi also said the party must watch for economic “black swans” – unpredictable events that can derail an economy, as well as “grey rhinoceroses” – known risks that go ignored until too late.

Crib sheet

Must-reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Protesters in Bern, Switzerland, demonstrate against the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. Photograph: Peter Klaunzer/EPA

The new elite’s phoney crusade to save the world

The former McKinsey consultant and New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas has mingled with the world’s privileged elite. He says the business and political leaders gathering at Davos really do want to improve the world – but only as long as their place in it isn’t threatened.

Adam Moss bids farewell to New York magazine

The editor of New York magazine is stepping down after 15 years successfully steering a beloved print institution into the digital age. He tells Ed Pilkington that, contra the accepted wisdom, “the magazine business is doing fine”.

Painting the oceans to showcase climate change

The artist Danielle Eubank has spent 20 years painting about 200 bodies of water from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, to raise awareness of pollution and climate change. Ocean warming is “the most frightening thing I can think of,” she tells Nadja Sayej.

Is The Other Two 2019’s funniest new show?

In the new Comedy Central sitcom The Other Two, a pair of older siblings must come to terms with the wild success of their 13-year-old brother, a Bieber-style pop sensation. Stuart Heritage says it is funny, scathing, touching – and perfectly observed.

Opinion

The psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen has spent his career studying empathy. He argues that appreciating the perspectives of others could prevent political violence, not least in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

I see empathy as one of our most valuable natural resources. It has particular promise as an approach to conflict resolution, one that has advantages over viewing a problem through a chiefly military, economic or legal lens.

Sport

Gayle Benson, the owner of the New Orleans Saints, has complained that her team were “unfairly deprived” of a place in the Super Bowl by a glaring missed call late in their NFC Championship game against the LA Rams on Sunday.

The former Manchester United and England star Rio Ferdinand lost both his wife and mother to cancer in quick succession. As he launches a nutrition business, he tells Simon Hattenstone that tragedy made him determined to do whatever he could to make sure his children would not be bereaved prematurely again.

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