Christie: Trump dodged confrontation after Kushner ‘hit job’ ... US citizen thought to be among dead in Kenya terror attack ... administration puts politics before science, say experts

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

Top story: British prime minister faces vote of confidence

Theresa’s May’s proposed Brexit deal with the EU went down to the worst parliamentary defeat in British democratic history on Tuesday, with MPs voting against it by an unprecedented margin of 230. The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, called for a vote of no confidence in May’s Conservative government but May’s MPs are likely to back her leadership rather than risk a general election. The deal was opposed by staunch remainers and by Brexiters such as Boris Johnson, leaving the way forward on Brexit no clearer than before.

Christie: Trump dodged confrontation after Kushner ‘hit job’

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trump meets Christie shortly after the 2016 election. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images

Donald Trump insisted to Chris Christie that he had not been “fired” as the campaign’s transition chairman but merely “made part of a larger team”, according to Christie’s account in his forthcoming memoir, Let Me Finish. The conversation took place in early 2017 when Trump tried to persuade the then New Jersey governor to be his labor secretary. In Christie’s telling it is evidence of the president’s reluctance to fire people in person. Christie says he was indeed fired, but by Steve Bannon, not Trump.

US citizen among dead in Kenyan terror attack

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The gunmen were pictured on CCTV approaching the dusitD2 hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, before the attack. Photograph: Reuters Tv/Reuters

At least 14 civilians, including a US citizen, are believed dead after a terrorist attack at a hotel in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday. Security camera footage showed four young men armed with AK47s entering the dusitD2 hotel complex before the attack. The Islamist militant group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility. Western security officials said they had recently warned Kenyan authorities that the group, based in neighbouring Somalia, had been planning attacks on targets in Kenya.

Militants killed. Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, said on Wednesday that all four militants had been killed and that 700 civilians had been safely evacuated during the attack.

Trump administration puts politics before science, say experts

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Trump administration’s alternative to the clean power plan would let emissions ‘rebound’ via coal-fired power plants. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

Trump’s climate change denial may claim the headlines but the other ways his agencies have privileged politics over science, by limiting programmes proven to protect Americans, could have devastating long-term effects, according to experts from both sides of the political divide. Their concerns include the rollback of health standards for school lunches, cutting grants for teenage pregnancy prevention and limiting pollution safeguards.

Worse than nothing. Research has found that the administration’s proposed replacement for the Obama-era clean power plan would increase carbon emissions more than doing nothing at all.

Crib sheet

Trump’s nominee for attorney general, William Barr , said at the first day of his US Senate confirmation hearing that Robert Mueller’s report on Russian election interference might not be made public.

Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort communicated with an alleged Russian intelligence operative about a plan for the future of Ukraine during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, prosecutors on Mueller’s team have indicated.

The New York senator and tough Trump critic Kirsten Gillibrand has announced she will join the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Verizon’s human resources department disseminates anti-union materials to the company’s staff in an effort to dissuade employees of the US’s largest wireless provider from unionising, according to internal documents obtained by the Guardian.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An investigator at the scene of a shooting in Philadelphia in 2016. Photograph: Joseph Kaczmarek/AP

Must-reads

Can Philadelphia stop people from dying?

The opioid epidemic and a soaring murder rate have combined to drive down life expectancy in Philadelphia. Erin Durkin asks whether new strategies to combat addiction and violence can stop people dying in America’s sixth-largest city.

How The Scream suits our political age

The Scream was first painted by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1893. Today it populates the culture, from horror movies to emojis, and is a fitting masterpiece for expressing our feelings about the current political situation, says Jonathan Jones.

Could urban soil solve our environmental problems?

Richard Shaw, a US Department of Agriculture scientist, has spent a decade digging one-metre (ft) holes across New York to assess the city’s soil. He tells Oliver Milman that soil is an under-appreciated resource, which could solve many of the problems caused by climate change.

The battle against Lousiana’s pipeline

The Bayou Bridge pipeline is due to pass directly through Lousiana’s Atchafalaya river basin, carrying crude oil from the Dakota Access pipeline to the Gulf Coast. Joe Whittle visits the camp where a group of rugged activists are leading resistance to the project.

Opinion

Corporate America and the 1% have seen their finances skyrocket under Trump. But with working families struggling more than ever, writes US senator Bernie Sanders, this is not an economy to be proud of.

Instead of giving tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations, we must demand that they pay their fair share in taxes. Instead of an austerity program for working families and the poor, we need austerity for billionaires and large multi-national corporations.

Sport

Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray led the Sooners to the College Football playoff despite an existing $4.6m (£3.5m) deal with the Oakland A’s. As he declares for the NFL draft, Oliver Connolly says Murray has done a masterful job of pitting the NFL and MLB against each other.

Roger Federer is through to the third round of the Australian Open. Follow all the action from Melbourne on the Guardian’s live blog.

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