Start your day off right with five things you need to know this morning.
Five things you need to know
Tech giant Google has threatened to remove its internet search service from Australia. It comes in response to Australia's attempt to make the US firm pay royalties to news publishers Down Under when their content is featured on Google's enormously lucrative products. Australian PM Scott Morrison said the country will not surrender to threats.
Google has threatened to block its search engine in Australia if it is forced to pay media outlets for their news content https://t.co/pNQwBY9BpT
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 22, 2021
Donald Trump was prank-called while on Air Force One last year, TV presenter Piers Morgan has claimed. According to professional controversialist Morgan, the call took place in October. Morgan said he thought the prank was "absolutely hilarious" and involved someone imitating the former journalist as a means of getting through to the most powerful man in the world. "They had a conversation with Trump thinking he was talking to me," Morgan explained.
Trump 'prank called by Piers Morgan impersonator' https://t.co/3oTzZFgM5m
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 22, 2021
Twitter has brought yet more controversy to its own door after allowing the theocratic dictator of Iran to remain on the platform despite one of his accounts tweeting an incitement to murder former president Donald Trump. One of the accounts of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, a Holocaust denier who has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel, tweeted an image showing Trump playing golf with the shadow of a plane hanging over him. Attached was the message "vengeance is inevitable." Despite repeated calls to remove Khamenei's accounts, Twitter has allowed some to stay online.
Iran's supreme leader calls for 'revenge' on Trump for Soleimani strike https://t.co/UsflWTAgpd pic.twitter.com/wlfCUh1m64
— New York Post (@nypost) January 22, 2021
There have been calls for Australian tennis great Margaret Court to be denied the country's highest honour – the Order of Australia – over her opposition to gay marriage. The 78-year-old sporting superstar is now a Christian pastor. She said: "It's very sad people hold on to that and still want to bully."
Breaking: Margaret Court, the all-time tennis great who has been a controversial figure in recent times, is to be recognised in the Australia Day honours list | @ChrisBarrett_ https://t.co/rKMnE9qhrK
— The Sydney Morning Herald (@smh) January 21, 2021
To round off a busy day of Trump-related news, the former president's trial is set to go ahead next week. Democrats said they will send the article of impeachment to the Senate on Monday. Trump has been accused of inciting insurrection in connection with the riots at the Capitol building earlier in the year.
BREAKING: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to send the article of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate on Monday, launching the start of the former president's trial on a charge of incitement of insurrection over the deadly Capitol riot. https://t.co/VOqWUMyigK
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 22, 2021
