Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
President under pressure to accept bipartisan funding plan
Donald Trump looks set to accept the bipartisan border security deal agreed by congressional negotiators to avoid another government shutdown – albeit grudgingly. “I can’t say I’m happy. I can’t say I’m thrilled,” Trump said on Tuesday of the proposed deal, which allocates about $1.4bn for border barriers, far less than the $5.7bn he had demanded. Yet he also implied he would find additional funding for his signature policy elsewhere in the federal coffers, insisting: “The wall is getting built, regardless.”
Cameraman attacked. The UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has condemned an attack on a BBC cameraman by a Trump supporter at the president’s rally in El Paso on Monday, saying he is “very worried” about an increase in violence against journalists around the world.
El Chapo found guilty and facing life imprisonment
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the infamous boss of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, has been found guilty of 10 counts of drug trafficking after more than a week of jury deliberations at the climax of his trial in New York. The 61-year-old will be sentenced in June and is expected to spend the rest of his life behind bars, following 11 weeks of testimony from more than 50 witnesses, featuring graphic accounts of Guzmán’s murders, political corruption and previous prison escapes.
War on drugs. Guzmán’s conviction is no more than a minor victory in the endless war on drugs, writes Ed Vulliamy, with the Sinaloa cartel and its rivals still shipping vast quantities of cocaine and other narcotics to the US and Europe, and fuelling record murder rates in Mexico.
California police shoot dead sleeping rapper
Six police officers were involved in the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old rapper who was sleeping in his car outside a Taco Bell in Vallejo, California, on Saturday night. Authorities said the officers fired “multiple rounds” out of “fear for their own safety” after Willie McCoy appeared to move his hands towards a firearm in his lap, but McCoy’s family say the young black man was racially profiled. “There was no attempt to try to work out a peaceful solution,” Marc McCoy, Willie’s brother, told the Guardian.
Police brutality. The death of McCoy, whose rapper name was Willie Bo, follows several high-profile incidents of alleged police brutality against black residents in Vallejo, a diverse Bay Area city.
Ultra-rare black leopard caught on camera at last
A British wildlife photographer has become the first person to capture the rare black leopard on camera in more than a century. Will Burrard-Lucas snapped the remarkable images of the elusive big cat – perhaps the world’s only living black leopard – using a Camtraptions camera trap with wireless motion sensors, at the Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya. The creature’s extraordinary colouring is caused by melanism, the opposite of albinism.
1909 photograph. The only other photographic evidence of the existence of the black leopard is a picture taken in 1909 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Crib sheet
The commander of US forces in South Korea has told the Senate Armed Services Committee that there has been “little to no verifiable change” in North Korea’s military capabilities, as Trump prepares for a second summit with Kim Jong-Un.
The FBI has launched a hate crime investigation into a fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia, Missouri, on Sunday, which the bureau says was intentionally set.
Canada’s former justice minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, has resigned from the cabinet amid allegations that the prime minister, Justin Trudeau’s office pressured her not to prosecute a major Canadian engineering firm.
The families of the few remaining Isis fighters in Baghouz have been fleeing the tiny enclave in eastern Syria, besieged by Kurdish-led forces, which is now all that remains of the group’s so-called caliphate.
Must-reads
The Parkland survivor who just wants to play
Anthony Borges was hailed as a hero after last year’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, when the teenager was shot five times. But as many in Parkland prepare to mark its anniversary, Borges tells Oliver Laughland he’d rather focus on getting back to the soccer field.
Tommy Wiseau follows up the ‘worst movie ever’
Tommy Wiseau, the eccentric film-maker behind The Room, widely considered the worst movie ever made, has released a trailer for its long-awaited follow-up, Big Shark. The film, most of which is still to be shot, is about three friends trying to save a flooded New Orleans from, well, a large, carnivorous fish.
Canada’s polar bear capital
On the edge of the Arctic, 1,000 miles north of Winnipeg, the 900 residents of Churchill, Manitoba, share their streets with the world’s largest land carnivore. Kieran Mulvaney asks what climate change and a revitalised port will mean for the people and the polar bears.
Why Andres Serrano turned his camera to torture
The provocative New York photographer Andres Serrano drowned Jesus in his own urine and shot portraits of the KKK. “I never have misgivings about my work,” he tells Yoli Terziyska, as he explains why he chose torture as the subject of his latest collection.
Opinion
Ilhan Omar has apologised for tweets suggesting US lawmakers supported Israel because of lobby money, which her critics said contained antisemitic tropes. But Alex Kotch says the freshman congresswoman is right about the influence of the Israel lobby.
It’s incredibly important to be able to distinguish between real antisemitism and basic political facts. We need to be able to examine the money and influence in politics that every special-interest group, including pro-Israel lobbying groups such as Aipac, wields.
Sport
Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s honeymoon at Manchester United came to an end on Tuesday evening, when his side were beaten 2-0 by a clearly superior Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie at Old Trafford.
Kingarthur Van Foliny Home, a seven-year-old wire fox terrier from Brazil, has been named America’s top dog at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York.
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