Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Vatican treasurer George Pell convicted on five charges
George Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic, was found guilty in December of five charges of child sexual abuse, in a verdict that was subject to a suppression order until this week and can now be reported. Pell was until recently the Vatican treasurer, the third most powerful cleric in Rome. His conviction for crimes committed during the 1990s, when he was archbishop of Melbourne, has thrown the church back into crisis just days after Pope Francis hosted a historic summit on clerical sexual abuse.
The victims. One of the men abused by Pell pleaded for anonymity in a statement describing his “shame, loneliness, depression and struggle”. The father of another victim, who died of a heroin overdose, has said he will sue Pell and the church.
Brutal and dogmatic. The Guardian’s David Marr, author of a book about Pell and the clerical sexual abuse scandal, says the cardinal made his career by being tough on sex, while swerving longstanding allegations about his own conduct.
Iranian foreign minister quits in blow to Iran deal
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister and lead negotiator on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, has unexpectedly submitted his resignation, dealing a victory to Tehran’s hardliners – and a further blow to the deal, from which the US withdrew last year. Javad Zarif announced he was quitting in an Instagram post, citing an “inability to continue to his service”. It is unclear whether President Hassan Rouhani will accept his resignation, a decision that ultimately lies with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
‘Deadly poison’. In an interview with an Iranian newspaper, Javad Zarif said the country’s factional political infighting was a “deadly poison”, implying he may have quit over hardline opposition to the landmark 2015 nuclear deal he negotiated.
Kim Jong-Un arrives in Hanoi for second summit with Trump
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un, has arrived in Vietnam after a three-day overland journey to Hanoi from Pyongyang (with a cigarette break), ahead of his second summit with Donald Trump. The two leaders are scheduled to have a one-on-one conversation and private dinner on Wednesday, followed by official meetings on Thursday. There is little expectation of a denuclearisation deal, though some hope the summit could end with a formal declaration that the 1950-53 Korean war is finally over.
Trump tactics. The US negotiating position with North Korea is uncertain and confused, writes the Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger. But military analyst William Arkin says Trump’s strategy, such as it is, appears to be working.
Allies warn against US military action in Venezuela
The US vice-president, Mike Pence, repeated Trump’s warning that “all options are on the table” regarding the crisis in Venezuela during a meeting with the country’s opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, in Bogotá on Monday. But despite Pence’s insistence that “there can be no bystanders in Venezuela’s struggle for freedom”, some international allies have explicitly ruled out military options, leaving the US increasingly isolated in its willingness to use force to oust President Nicolás Maduro.
Aid blocked. Guaidó has urged the international community to “keep all options open” after opposition efforts to bring foreign aid into Venezuela failed over the weekend.
Jorge Ramos. Univision has said its news anchor Jorge Ramos and his crew were temporarily detained and their equipment and footage confiscated after Ramos raised awkward questions in an interview with Maduro on Monday.
Crib sheet
India has launched an airstrike on a training camp in Kashmir run by the group responsible for a recent suicide attack on Indian forces, the first aerial bombing across the disputed border with Pakistan since the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971.
Paul Manafort is pleading with a judge for leniency as he faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison. Manafort’s lawyers said on Monday that his crimes related to the Trump-Russia investigation were merely “garden variety”.
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the UK’s leftwing Labour party, has said Labour will back a second Brexit referendum, assuming parliament rejects his party’s proposals for an alternative Brexit deal this week.
The world’s richest man, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, has finally become one of its most generous, appearing for the first time in the annual Philanthropy 50 list, a ranking of America’s top 50 donors, after contributing $2bn to good causes in 2018.
Must-reads
Who might be winning Oscars in 2020?
With a mere 12 months to go before next year’s Academy Awards, Benjamin Lee assesses the early favourites, including Oscar veterans like Tom Hanks, Natalie Portman and Quentin Tarantino, and newcomers such as Zazie Beetz.
How concrete became the ultimate lifestyle concept
Maligned for decades as the scourge of urban design, concrete is back in fashion. The Guardian’s architecture critic Oliver Wainwright explains the grey stuff’s growing popularity, and asks why we don’t do more to preserve our existing brutalist structures.
The US soldiers fighting for vegan food
The US military will accommodate a kosher, halal and vegetarian diet for deployed troops, but vegans in the field are often forced to live on plant-based snacks. Rachel Krantz talks to some of the growing number of vegan servicemen.
The ‘coyote lady’ of San Francisco
Janet Kessler came across her first coyote early one summer morning in 2007, on a hill in San Francisco, and has been besotted by the creatures ever since. With urban coyotes proliferating, writes Vivian Ho, coyote enthusiasts are becoming more common, too.
Opinion
The Trump administration’s new abortion rules are designed to defund Planned Parenthood, says Moira Donegan. That will deprive many of America’s most vulnerable low-income patients of crucial care.
Money that was earmarked to help women stay healthy and make independent, informed choices about their own bodies will now be given to organizations that have a track record of lying to women in order to constrain their choices.
Sport
A film about Alex Honnold’s incredible free solo ascent of El Capitan just won the Oscar for best documentary. Sam Wollaston goes bouldering – under very controlled conditions – with the world’s greatest climber.
McCall Zerboni spent years playing in the NWSL while working low-paid jobs in the off-season. After finally reaching the US squad in her 30s, she tells Gemma Clarke it was a “long road” to this year’s World Cup: “I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about giving up.”
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