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Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Rosselló insists ‘I am a good man’ amid clamour to quit
Police in Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan, fired teargas at protesters on Monday night to disperse a crowd of thousands demanding the resignation of the island’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló, over leaked text messages in which he and his inner circle mocked the victims of Hurricane Maria – the 2017 disaster that plunged Puerto Rico deeper into an economic crisis from which it has yet to emerge. The clashes with police concluded a day that had begun with a general strike across the US territory.
Sexist slurs. Rosselló, whose messages also contained homophobic and sexist slurs, insisted in a Facebook Live address on Sunday: “I am a good man who loves his island and everyone.”
Trump and Congress reach critical deal on debt and budget
Donald Trump and congressional leaders announced on Monday that they had reached a debt and budget deal that will avoid the political chaos of a government shutdown or a showdown over a disastrous federal default, but which has drawn warnings of fiscal irresponsibility from deficit and debt scolds. The broad outline of the agreement is for $1.37tn in agency spending next year and slightly more in fiscal 2021.
‘Great victory’. Trump tweeted that the agreement was “another big victory” for the military, while Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said it would “enhance our national security and invest in middle-class priorities”.
Fiscal responsibility. But Maya MacGuineas, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, described the deal as “a total abdication of fiscal responsibility” that “may end up being the worst budget agreement in our nation’s history”.
Democrat: Mueller testimony will be ‘damning and explosive’
Robert Mueller’s testimony to Congress on Wednesday is bound to be “damning and explosive”, a Democrat on the House judiciary committee has told the Guardian, as the former special counsel prepares to speak publicly for the first time about his investigation into the ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, and the president’s alleged efforts to obstruct justice. David Cicilline said the hearing was “the first opportunity for many, many Americans to actually hear what’s contained in the Mueller report”.
Report read-a-thons. Hundreds of actors, journalists and novelists have been holding public, staged readings of the Mueller report in several US cities, in a bid to better inform Americans of the contents of the 448-page document.
South Korean jets fire warning shots at Russian aircraft
South Korean jets fired 360 rounds of warning shots after a Russian military plane violated South Korea’s airspace twice on Tuesday, defence ministry officials in Seoul have said. In the first such incident between the two countries, South Korean fighter jets were scrambled after a Russian A-50 entered the country’s territorial sky off its east coast. Russia denied it had violated Korean airspace and accused the South Korean jets of carrying out dangerous manoeuvres that threatened its aircraft.
North Korea. North Korean state news reported on Tuesday that the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, had inspected a newly built submarine, raising fresh fears of a ballistic missile threat.
Cold war. The former Soviet Union backed the North during the 1950-53 Korean war. Russia and South Korea re-established diplomatic ties in 1990, shortly before the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Crib sheet
UN experts have been blocked from visiting a deserted tanker, anchored and eroding off the coast of Yemen with more than 1m barrels of oil onboard, which they fear could become a “floating bomb” with the potential to cause an environmental disaster.
Police in Canada investigating three suspicious deaths and the disappearance of two teenagers on the remote Alaska Highway say the incidents could be linked.
Boris Johnson is on course to become Britain’s new prime minister, following a leadership vote by 160,000 members of the country’s ruling Conservative party, which he is expected to win comfortably on Tuesday.
Donald Trump Jr will join his father, mother and sister on bookshelves later this year when he publishes his first literary effort, titled Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us.
Must-reads
How Bay Area freeways became a venue for gun violence
Gun homicides in the Bay Area have gone down overall – but not on the freeways, where there were 189 shootings between November 2015 and April 2019. California highway patrol puts that down to a combination of factors, including gang conflicts and displacement, as Darwin BondGraham and Abené Clayton report.
Bernie Sanders battles to stand out in Democratic race
Many of the policies Bernie Sanders ran on in 2016 are now consensus among the crowded Democratic field for 2020. That makes it harder for a leftwing firebrand to stand out, but he is hoping his signature Medicare for All proposal can do the trick, writes Lauren Gambino.
Is fair trade finished?
Fairtrade International was formed in 1997, and its green and blue certification logo changed the way we shop. But in recent years major companies have begun abandoning the label in favour of their own in-house imitations, putting the very idea of fair trade under threat, says Samanth Subramanian.
Behind Teju Cole’s exhibition on America
The writer and photography critic Teju Cole has assembled an exhibition at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Photography, for which he raided the museum’s archive for images of human suffering and societal upheaval that reflect the current moment. “For me, nothing is absent of politics,” he tells Nadja Sayej.
Opinion
Trump is hoping his racist attacks on four progressive congresswomen will distract Americans from his administration’s policy disasters. On the contrary, argues Mallaika Jabali, it will rally people to the Squad and their causes.
The louder he gets, the easier it will be for them to recruit teammates in this struggle for justice and basic human dignity.
Sport
Cristiano Ronaldo will not face criminal charges over claims he raped a woman in a Las Vegas hotel suite in 2009. Prosecutors in Nevada said there was not enough evidence to prove the allegations against the Juventus star.
Egan Bernal has been a model of consistency during the mountain stages of this year’s Tour de France, laying the groundwork to be Colombia’s first ever Tour champion. Jeremy Whittle assesses Bernal’s chances, and those of his five main remaining rivals.
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