News Headlines - 28 January 2019

▽Howard Schultz, former Starbucks CEO, says he's considering independent run for president - CBS News

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz left his company seven months ago which led many to wonder what the socially conscious executive was planning. To Schultz, Starbucks was never just a coffee shop. He saw his stores as meeting halls where customers came to chew over the great issues of the day. His activism is rooted in a rags-to-riches life. And tonight, Schultz reveals traumas he has never discussed publicly. At the age of 65, he is preparing for the greatest challenge of his life. Many believe that Schultz would run for president as a Democrat. His announcement tonight may come as a surprise.

▽NATO head: Trump's tough talk has added $100B to alliance, helped deter Russia | Fox News

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking on "Fox News Sunday," said President Trump's tough talk has ultimately strengthened the 70-year-old alliance by leading member nations to contribute tens of billions of additional dollars to ensure their own security.
Stoltenberg's comments were a direct repudiation of critics who have accused Trump of undermining NATO by repeatedly pushing allies to meet their defense spending obligations -- and Trump himself referred to Stoltenberg's interview minutes later on Twitter as a rejection of a narrative pushed by "Dems & fake news."

▽ISIS bombing in Philippines shows reach into Asia

A deadly bombing of a cathedral in the Philippines has brought fresh attention to the Islamic State’s ability to metastasize across the world, even as the militant group has been reduced to a sliver of turf in Syria.
The attack, consisting of two detonations, struck the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on the island of Jolo at the southern end of the Philippines, a region where Muslim insurgents have for decades battled the Catholic-majority state. At least 20 people were confirmed dead in the assault, which took place just as worshippers gathered for Mass on Sunday.

▽Letters with suspected cyanide sent to 9 Japan firms - The Straits Times

Nine Japanese companies, including drugmakers and a newspaper publisher, have received blackmail letters containing white powder suspected to be cyanide, police and local media said yesterday.
The letters were sent under the names of executed members of the Aum Shinrikyo - the Japanese doomsday cult behind the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo - and demanded 35 million won (S$42,350) in bitcoins, a police spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

▽Thief steals painting from Moscow gallery as witnesses watch | The Guardian

On Sunday evening, a man in jeans and a dark shirt walked up to a painting by landscape artist Arkhip Kuindzhi in Moscow’s New Tretyakov Gallery and lifted it right off the wall. Then, as others looked on, he grabbed the frame in one hand and strolled out of the gallery.
It took several minutes for museum patrons to realise they had witnessed a theft. One eyewitness said that he had mistaken the thief “for a museum employee”. By the time the alarm was raised, the man had already vanished on to the street.
The painting of the Ai-Petri mountain peak was part of a popular exhibition of landscapes in Moscow, and its theft quickly became a media sensation.