President Donald Trump is due to give the annual State of the Union address in the same chamber where he was impeached less than three months ago. The speech to Congress Tuesday night, with the theme “the great American comeback”, will highlight key election year accomplishments.

Mr Trump will tout US economic and military strength, US media report. The speech comes as Mr Trump is expected to be acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial on Wednesday. The address – Mr Trump’s third and possibly last, if he loses his re-election bid in November – is due to begin at 21:00, local time.

He is expected to use the address to make his pitch to voters by emphasising optimistic economic figures and criticising rivals. He is also expected to offer his own plans for healthcare, immigration and economic growth, US media say, contrasting his approach with that of the Democrats he accuses of “socialism”.

During Mr Trump’s time in office, unemployment has dropped to 3.5%, the lowest in half a century – an accomplishment the president has often pointed to as a reason to re-elect him.(BBC)…[+]

A shooting on a Greyhound bus in California has left a woman dead and five other people injured, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) said. The shooting happened just before 01:30 local time (09:30 GMT) on Monday on the Grapevine section of Interstate 5, north of Los Angeles.

The suspect is now in custody. The motive for the attack was not immediately known. The bus was travelling from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The driver pulled onto the hard shoulder near Fort Tejon after the shooting, the CHP’s Sgt Brian Pennings said. He said the suspect exited the bus, leaving the weapon inside.

The driver then took the next exit and stopped by a petrol station so the injured could be treated. They were later taken to hospital, and the suspect was arrested. One of those shot – a woman – died of her injuries.(BBC)…[+]

Joaquin Phoenix has received praise for using his Baftas speech to call out “systemic racism” in the film industry. Phoenix collected the best actor award for Joker on Sunday, and his comments followed an outcry about the all-white acting nominations line-up.

“I think that we send a very clear message to people of colour that you’re not welcome here,” he said. Actress Viola Davis and director Lulu Wang, who made The Farewell, were among those to applaud him on Twitter.While no women were nominated for best director for the seventh year in a row, Wang was at the London ceremony after The Farewell was nominated for best film not in the English language.(BBC)…[+]

Hopes have been dashed an experimental vaccine could protect people against HIV, the virus that causes Aids. The National Institutes of Health has stopped its HVTN 702 trial, of more than 5,000 people in South Africa, as it found the jab did not prevent HIV.

Experts expressed “deep disappointment” but added the search for a preventive HIV vaccine must continue. Such vaccines do not contain HIV and therefore do not pose any danger of giving HIV to an individual. The jab was a new version of the first HIV-vaccine candidate shown to provide some protection against the virus – in the RV144 clinical trial, in Thailand. There are many different strains of HIV and the vaccine had been adapted to the subtype most common is South Africa, which has one of the highest HIV rates in the world. There were great hopes that the vaccine would work and it could then be adapted to cover other strains of HIV circulating in other parts of the world.(BBC)…[+]

Police in Mexico are questioning 10 guards at a prison in the capital, Mexico City, after three high-profile inmates escaped. The three, including a man suspected of being the financier for the sons of jailed drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, walked through five gates before driving away in an official car. Three guards have reportedly confessed to helping the inmates escape. All three prisoners were facing extradition to the US.When guards did their morning check of the inmates they noticed that three were missing. Víctor Manuel Félix Beltrán, Luis Fernando Meza González and Yael Osuna Navarro had all escaped from the medium-security jail in Mexico City.

The fugitives passed through five gates to get to a courtyard where they boarded a prison car which whisked them away. The gates had been installed at the medium-security jail after the three had been transferred there from high-security facilities.

An investigation is under way to find out whether the gates were left unlocked or whether the fugitives were provided with keys or instruments to open them.(BBC)…[+]

A demolition worker has been killed when a sports complex roof collapsed prematurely in the Russian city of St Petersburg, officials say. Dramatic drone footage shows the man with a blow torch cutting through metal supports at the SKK Peterburgskiy when the massive structure disintegrates.

He is seen trying to scramble to the safety of a cage suspended from a crane, but does not appear to make it. The body of a 29-year-old man was found later in the rubble. The man was one of four employees cutting metal cables to dismantle the roof of the sports and concert complex.

Aleksey Anikin, head of the emergencies ministry in St Petersburg, said the other three workers were alive and being questioned by investigators. About 80% of the complex collapsed in Friday’s accident in the northern city, Russian media report.

The SKK Peterburgskiy, which was opened in 1980, has hosted concerts and various sports events. It is being reconstructed to host the Ice Hockey World Championship in 2023.(bbc)…[+]

Authorities in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) have declared a state of emergency as massive bushfires rage south of Canberra. It is the worst fire threat to the territory in nearly two decades, officials said.

The main blaze, in the territory’s south, is burning over more than 18,500 hectares.

Residents in suburbs of Canberra have been urged to “remain alert” for potential evacuations. “The ACT is now facing the worst bushfire threat since the devastating fires of 2003,” Chief Minister Andrew Barr told reporters on Friday. “There’s now no higher priority for the ACT government at this time than the bushfire threat.”

The small territory, located between Sydney and Melbourne, has about 400,000 residents. In 2003, bushfires in the suburbs of Canberra killed four people, injured another 500 and destroyed or damaged 470 homes. Similar weather conditions were being recorded on Friday, authorities said.(BBC)…[+]

Facebook has settled a long-running legal dispute about the way it scans and tags people’s photos. It will pay $550m (£421m) to a group of users in Illinois, who argued that its facial recognition tool was in violation of the state’s privacy laws.

The case has been ongoing since 2015, and the settlement was announced in its quarterly earnings. It comes as facial recognition use by the police, and in public spaces, comes under intense scrutiny.

The lawsuit against Facebook was given the go-ahead in 2018 when a federal judge ruled it could be heard as a class action (group) case. The appeals court disagreed with Facebook’s attempts to stop this, and in January the Supreme Court also declined to review its appeal. The social network told the BBC: “We decided to pursue a settlement as it was in the best interests of our community and our shareholders to move past this matter.”(BBC)…[+]

Police in Mexico are questioning 10 guards at a prison in the capital, Mexico City, after three high-profile inmates escaped. The three, including a man suspected of being the financier for the sons of jailed drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, walked through five gates before driving away in an official car.

Three guards have reportedly confessed to helping the inmates escape. All three prisoners were facing extradition to the US. When guards did their morning check of the inmates they noticed that three were missing. Víctor Manuel Félix Beltrán, Luis Fernando Meza González and Yael Osuna Navarro had all escaped from the medium-security jail in Mexico City.(BBC)…[+]

A man has been found guilty of trying to steal a copy of the Magna Carta from Salisbury Cathedral. Mark Royden, 47, from Kent, used a hammer to try to smash through the protective case around the 805-year-old document but failed to take it.

Jurors at Salisbury Crown Court also found him guilty of criminal damage. Royden had told police he believed the document, which helped establish legal rights for citizens in this country, was fake. He was remanded in custody, ahead of sentencing on February 25. The attempted theft, which caused £14,466 of damage, took place in October 2018 in the cathedral’s medieval Chapter House where the document was on display. Royden was arrested after being chased and detained by “good-spirited” members of the public as he attempted to leave.

Judge Richard Parkes QC told jurors: “There is an irony that the charter of the Magna Carta that this defendant is charged with attempting to steal states that no free man may be imprisoned other than by the lawful judgment of his peers.

“It still holds good and is in the process of the court right now.”(BBC)…[+]