Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s headlines. If you’d like to receive this briefing by email, sign up here.
Top story: Trump buries the hatchet with ‘Beautiful Ted’
Two years ago, he was “Lyin’ Ted”. But as Donald Trump campaigned in Texas with Ted Cruz on Monday night, he gave the embattled senator a rebrand: “Beautiful Ted,” instead. Cruz, for his part, embraced the man who once mocked his wife’s looks and accused his father of involvement in the JFK assassination. That appeared to be the price of an endorsement from Trump, whom Cruz predicted would “be overwhelmingly re-elected as president” in 2020.
- Beto behind. Despite record donations, the Democrats’ charismatic challenger Beto O’Rourke remained an average of seven points behind Cruz in polls of their Texas senate race as early voting began on Monday.
- Hill top? In California’s 25th district, another Republican incumbent faces a tight race against a young Democrat: 31-year-old Katie Hill, dubbed “America’s most millennial candidate”.
Americans urged to vote as Trump threatens trans recognition
LGBT and civil rights activists have urged Americans to vote in the November midterms “like lives depend on it”, after the New York Times reported that the Trump administration intends to reverse Obama-era policies that officially recognise transgender people. The move would see gender officially defined as only male or female and determined at birth.
- Social justice. The hashtag #WeWillNotBeErased spread on social media, while Hillary Clinton tweeted her support, calling the White House’s plans “an attack on the humanity of transgender people”.
Erdoğan: Turkey will not stay silent over Khashoggi murder
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has threatened diplomatic action over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul. Speaking at a Turkish parliamentary meeting on Tuesday, Erdoğan delivered a comprehensive account of the journalist’s killing, which he said was carried out by a team of 15 Saudis, including generals and a “body double” who was sent to walk around Istanbul in Khashoggi’s clothes after his death. The speech carried a strong implication that the Turkish president does not think the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is innocent.
- Power struggle. The Khashoggi investigation has given Erdoğan leverage over the Riyadh regime in its ongoing regional power struggle, writes the Guardian’s Middle East editor, Martin Chulov.
Atlanta week: who will survive the city’s gentrification?
The Guardian’s week of stories from the unofficial capital of the “new south” continues today. Jamiles Lartey reports on the rampant property speculation that is driving working-class, black residents out of many Atlanta neighbourhoods, where the racial dynamics add an unsettling edge to the otherwise familiar phenomenon of gentrification.
- Market forces. Atlanta was the first US city to develop public housing, in 1936. This century it became the first US city to abandon public housing entirely to the free market.
Crib sheet
- The EU has warned the Trump administration of the risks of a nuclear arms race after the US president announced his intention to pull out of a Reagan-era arms control treaty with Russia.
- The world’s oldest intact shipwreck, thought to be ancient Greek, has been found on the bed of the Black Sea, where it looks to have lain undisturbed for more than 2,400 years.
- North and South Korea have agreed to remove weapons and troops from a border village where the two sides regularly face off, in a sign of steadily improving relations between the two countries.
- A California judge has rejected an appeal bid by Monsanto to overturn a landmark jury verdict, which found that the agrochemical giant’s popular weedkiller, Roundup, causes cancer.
Must-reads
A little perspective: the unlikely appeal of model villages
As the Bekonscot Model Village in Buckinghamshire, England, prepares to celebrate its 90th birthday, Simon Garfield explains how a peculiarly British fascination with such miniature townscapes became a global craze, from midtown Manhattan to Shenzhen.
Bishop Michael Curry: moderate religious voices going unheard
Curry became a household name after his stirring sermon at the royal wedding. He tells Harriet Sherwood he is concerned by a lack of Christian voices standing up for immigrants or opposing the far right. “Christian leaders must speak up and bear witness to the values that we hold based on the teachings of Jesus. And when we fail to do so, we’ve failed to represent the Christian faith in the public sphere.”
Why Los Angeles teachers are moving towards a strike
The Los Angeles teachers’ union recently voted to authorise a strike in the nation’s second-largest school district. In a year when teachers in three other states have already walked out, with mixed success, LA educators want better pay, greater investment, fewer standardised tests, smaller classes and improved safety.
The sights and sounds of Atlanta’s cultural renaissance
America’s black art renaissance began in the neighbourhoods around the Atlanta birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr, or so say the artists who live and work there. Meanwhile, Atlanta’s contemporary music scene is providing a soundtrack for the new south.
Opinion
Tech CEOs are the robber barons of the 21st century, argues Toby Walsh. And, like their historical predecessors, the biggest tech companies ought to be broken up and regulated.
We’ve always had to regulate markets; unfettered capitalism tends to go to excess. Regulation is needed to ensure that companies act in line with the public good and not just the stock options of their CEOs.
Sport
The LA Dodgers haven’t won a World Series in 30 years. Can they sneak one past the favoured Red Sox now? The Guardian’s writers make their predictions.
Atlanta may be renowned for its attachment to the NFL version of football. But the city’s two-year-old soccer franchise, Atlanta United, has become an unlikely phenomenon, topping the MLS table and drawing crowds of more than 70,000. Bryan Armen Graham reports.
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