These three things are going to have a significant impact on the wider world.
1. Trump’s cabinet picks under scrutiny
The US Senate will grill Tom Price, US president-elect Donald Trump’s health secretary nominee, over potential conflicts of interest later today.
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If Price is confirmed he would likely play a key part in Trump’s plans to overhaul Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law.
Meanwhile, Scott Pruitt, tapped to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, will face questions on his climate change denial. UN ambassador nominee Nikki Haley and commerce secretary pick Wilbur Ross will also face questions.
Trump is set to be sworn in as US president on Friday.
2. Air India will start selling female-only seat sections from today
Controversial state-run airline airline Air India will designate female-only seats on its domestic routes from today following complaints from a number of women were allegedly groped by male travellers during flights.
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By GlobalDataIt’s not the company’s first flirtation with controversy. In 2015 it grounded around 130 flight attendants after measuring their BMI body fat levels and finding them to be too high.
Six seats in the third row of economy class cabins on its Airbus A320 aircraft will be reserved for female passengers who don’t want to be seated next to men.
The airline will also keep plastic handcuffs on all flights to restrain passengers who get “totally out of control”.
Despite the move to make female passengers safer and more comfortable on their flights, not everyone at Air India is impressive with the option.
Jitendra Bhargava, Air India executive director, said:
“To my knowledge, this happens nowhere else in the world. Planes are not unsafe for women passengers.”
3. Alibaba founder Jack Ma takes the stage at Davos to bang the drum for globalisation
The Chinese delegation to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland is back out in force today.
The leader of the world’s largest Communist Party Xi Jinping opened the annual meeting yesterday arguing for globalisation and the wonders of free trade.
Ma will back up Xi’s message today, at the summit along with Wang Jianlin, another of China’s richest men and chairman of the property developer Dalian Wanda.
