Jan 15, 2019

Democrats reject Trump invitation to negotiate without Pelosi

Shannon Vavra

Photo: Win McNamee via Getty Images

Freshman and centrist Democrats rejected an invitation Tuesday to negotiate with the White House, despite receiving House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s blessing to attend such a meeting, the AP reports.

The big picture: The invitation was the White House's attempt to appeal to Democrats who are facing pressure in districts carried by President Trump in 2016. It's now Day 25 of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, and — as the AP notes — the White House has discovered "the limits of trying to bypass Speaker Nancy Pelosi in shutdown negotiations." If the impasse is not resolved by next week, the House has said it will cancel its scheduled recess.

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Coronavirus spreads to more countries, and U.S. ups its case count

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. Note: China numbers are for the mainland only and U.S. numbers include repatriated citizens.

The novel coronavirus continues to spread to more nations, and the U.S. reports a doubling of its confirmed cases to 34 — while noting those are mostly due to repatriated citizens, emphasizing there's no "community spread" yet in the U.S. Meanwhile, Italy reported its first virus-related death on Friday.

The big picture: COVID-19 has now killed at least 2,359 people and infected more than 77,000 others, mostly in mainland China. New countries to announce infections recently include Israel, Lebanon and Iran.

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Orion Rummler

Wells Fargo agrees to pay $3 billion to settle consumer abuse charges

Clients use an ATM at a Wells Fargo Bank in Los Angeles, Calif. Photo: Ronen Tivony/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Wells Fargo agreed to a pay a combined $3 billion to the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday for opening millions of fake customer accounts between 2002 and 2016, the SEC said in a press release.

The big picture: The fine "is among the largest corporate penalties reached during the Trump administration," the Washington Post reports.

Go deeperArrow7 hours ago - Economy & Business