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Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Trump’s account of Baghdadi raid called into question
After a years-long manhunt, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was cornered in a remote hamlet in Syria’s Idlib province on Saturday. But the details of the Islamic State leader’s death, in a US operation named after the aid worker and Isis hostage Kayla Mueller, have come into question, with doubts raised about Donald Trump’s account of the raid. The president revelled in his dramatic retelling on Sunday, but it has since emerged the footage he watched from the White House consisted solely of overhead surveillance with no audio.
Reshaped Middle East. Baghdadi’s demise comes as the map of the region is being redrawn, writes Martin Chulov, largely as a result of the destruction, division and chaos his group unleashed.
Nancy Pelosi. Top Democrats reacted angrily to the president’s announcement that he had chosen not to inform them of the raid beforehand, claiming they could not be relied on to keep it secret.
Democrats expect battle over Bolton impeachment testimony
The Democrats in charge of the impeachment inquiry are gearing up for a fight with the White House over their desire to interview the former national security adviser John Bolton, who resigned from the administration last month and who reportedly described Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine as a “drug deal”. As Tom McCarthy writes, this week’s hearings promise yet more bombshell testimony – and more presidential rage.
Trump booed. Trump was greeted with boos and chants of “lock him up” as he attended Sunday’s World Series game in Washington DC. In Chicago, protesters are gearing up to oppose the president when he visits the city on Monday.
A Warning. Joe Klein, the formerly anonymous author of Primary Colours, the bestselling political satire of the Clinton era, has said the author of a forthcoming exposé about the Trump White House by an unnamed insider ought to come forward.
Evacuations and mass outages as California fires rage on
The California governor, Gavin Newsom, has declared a statewide emergency as thousands of firefighters battle blazes in northern California in the face of howling “el diablo” winds, with at least 185,000 people forced to evacuate by the Kincade fire in Sonoma County, part of California’s world-famous wine country. More than 2 million people in the state remain without power after a planned outage by its largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, intended to prevent further fires.
Southern California. Almost all the 50,000 residents ordered to evacuate because of the Tick fire north of LA have been allowed to return home, after 18 structures were destroyed. As of Sunday evening, the Tick fire was 65% contained.
Democrat Katie Hill resigns, blaming ‘smear campaign’
The California congresswoman Katie Hill, formerly a rising star of the Democratic party, announced her resignation on Sunday amid allegations of a sexual relationship with a staffer, in possible violation of a House rule that was introduced in response to #MeToo. Hill said in a letter that she would leave office with a “broken heart”, blaming her estranged husband and “hateful political operatives” for coordinating a “smear campaign” against her.
Ethics investigation. The House ethics committee opened an investigation into the allegations against Hill last week, following the publication of a nude photograph and private texts, which she says were leaked by her husband during an acrimonious divorce.
Cheat sheet
The former president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who left office in 2015 under a cloud of corruption accusations, has made a dramatic return as vice-president to Alberto Fernández, who triumphed over the incumbent, Mauricio Macri, in elections at the weekend.
The EU is preparing to grant the UK another three-month extension of its Brexit deadline to 31 January 2020, with an option to leave earlier if a deal is ratified in the meantime.
John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat who served in the House for more than 50 years, and who co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus, has died aged 90. Conyers left office in 2017 amid allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denied.
The former Smiths frontman and far-right supporter Morrissey performed in LA on Saturday wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan “Fuck the Guardian”. The singer told the crowd this newspaper was “the voice of all that is wrong and sad about modern Britain”.
Must-reads
Dafne Keen: ‘It’s important to have stories about young girls’
Dafne Keen was just 11 when she blew Hugh Jackman away in her audition for Logan. Three years later, she is playing Lyra Belacqua, the brave, wild young heroine of Philip Pullman’s epic His Dark Materials on HBO. The character taught her “to speak up. Be bold, be brave, be yourself,” she tells Rebecca Nicholson.
How to make the climate crisis resonate with readers
Jonathan Watts, the Guardian’s global environment editor, has the unenviable task of describing the grand scale of the climate emergency in ways that make it personal to the reader. He explains how, whether reporting from the Amazon or the Arctic, he has found that no one is free of responsibility, and everyone has something to lose.
Could paid family leave be a 2020 election issue?
One in four women go back to work within 10 days of giving birth in the US, which is one of just three countries in the world not to offer statutory paid maternity leave. After years of inaction, however, the issue is at last on the political agenda in 2020, as Miranda Bryant reports.
Grieving for the child I lost before her birth
Devika Bhat lost a child almost six months into her pregnancy, and found her grief compounded by the trauma of giving birth. “It is deeply concerning,” she writes, “that the subject of pregnancy loss remains something that tends to be swept under the carpet.”
Opinion
Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, was elected on a promise to combat widespread corruption. Now, writes David Miranda, Bolsonaro and his family are subsumed by multiple corruption scandals suggesting serious criminality.
The president has all but relinquished his reputation as an anti-corruption crusader with his now-obvious fixation on ensuring that no investigation is permitted to proceed.
Sport
The Houston Astros are now just one win away from a second World Series title, after they beat the Washington Nationals 7-1 in DC on Sunday night, giving the Texas team a 3-2 series lead.
Trent Alexander-Arnold was Liverpool’s most potent attacking threat for much of his team’s 2-1 win over Tottenham, despite his defensive failings. Arsenal’s captain Granit Xhaka was subjected to cruel boos from his own fans as his team imploded again in a 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace. Those are two of 10 talking points from the weekend’s action in the Premier League.
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