Subscribe now to receive the morning briefing by email.
Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Warren, Booker and Castro shine alongside also-rans
The long process of whittling down the Democratic field to a single presidential nominee began in Miami on Wednesday night, with the senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, and the former housing secretary Julián Castro, shining brightest in the first of two 10-candidate televised debates. Diverse and civilised, the Democrats presented a stark tonal contrast to Donald Trump as they differed on healthcare, immigration and economic policy, but arguably gave too little consideration to the climate crisis.
Winners and losers. The Guardian’s panelists give their verdict on the winners and losers from the debate. For Richard Wolffe, Warren was the clear victor, while Moira Donegan says Beto O’Rourke failed to distinguish himself.
Mayor Pete. Pete Buttigieg will face Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in the second debate on Thursday, but the South Bend mayor is busy dealing with a tragedy at home that has exposed his tense relationship with people of colour in his community.
Trump threatens Vietnam and attacks India ahead of G20
Ahead of the G20 summit, which begins in Osaka on Friday, Trump has threatened China and Vietnam with new tariffs, attacked India for imposing its own, criticised Germany as “delinquent” for not paying enough into Nato’s budget, and even talked down his Japanese hosts. He did add, however, that he expects to have a “very good conversation” with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Trade war. Trump claimed China’s economy was “going down the tubes” as a result of the US-China trade war. Martin Farrer says the facts are not so clear-cut.
Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, has accused Trump of a “lack of moral principle”.
A young family’s tragedy brings focus to the migration crisis
Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez had planned to give his wife and young daughter, Angie Valeria, a better life than they had at home in El Salvador, and set out north with them to the US. But Óscar and Valeria never made it, and now the graphic image of the father and daughter lying drowned in shallow water on the banks of the Rio Grande has given new urgency to the debate over the migrant crisis. At home in San Martín, Óscar’s mother Rosa tells Anna-Catherine Brigida: “I feel a huge emptiness.”
Treacherous waters. The shocking photograph of Óscar and Valeria has been shared worldwide, but they are just two of dozens who have drowned trying to cross the river into the US this year alone, as Patrick Timmons reports.
Japan warns against no-deal Brexit as Johnson changes tune
Japan’s foreign minister has pleaded with Britain’s two potential next prime ministers not to yank the UK out of the EU without a deal. “There are over 1,000 Japanese companies operating in the United Kingdom, so we are very concerned with this no-deal Brexit,” Tarō Kōno told the BBC on Thursday. The UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and a former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, are vying for the leadership of the Conservative party, a contest whose victor will end up in 10 Downing Street.
Odds on? Johnson said this week the UK must leave the EU in October “come what may, do or die”, refusing to rule out no deal. But a day later, the flexible frontrunner insisted the odds of a no-deal Brexit remained a “million-to-one against”.
Crib sheet
In April, for the first time ever, the US generated more of its energy from renewable sources than from coal. According to federal government data, clean energy such as solar and wind produced 23% of US electricity, compared with coal’s 20%.
Wealthy countries including the UK and Australia are within reach of eliminating cervical cancer, thanks to widespread take-up of the HPV vaccine, a major study has found.
The Dutch national railway will attempt to atone for its part in the Holocaust by paying up to €50m to the relatives of those it transported to Nazi death camps during the second world war.
A fossilised thigh bone recently unearthed in a Crimean cave suggests when humans first arrived in Europe from Africa, they may have shared the continent with a species of giant flightless bird that dwarfed ostriches and weighed close to half a tonne.
Must-reads
How Vic Mensa condemns Ice with his Camp America video
The rapper Vic Mensa has long been an articulate critic of Trump. But with his new promo for Camp America, in which he plays an Ice agent detaining white children, he has produced perhaps the most political music video of the year. He spoke to Rob LeDonne.
Ignoring the victims of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis
More than 3 million people have been displaced since the start of the catastrophic conflict in Yemen in 2015. Of those, the US has accepted just 50 – and the Trump administration has all but ended their resettlement. Lauren Aratani talks to one of the lucky few.
The hospitals suing the poor over bills they cannot afford
When Carrie Barrett could not pay the $12,109 charge for a heart operation at Tennessee’s Methodist University hospital, the hospital sued her for the unpaid medical bills. As Wendi C Thomas discovers, Barrett is just one of thousands facing such legal action in Memphis alone, with countless more cases across the US.
Decoding the tech bros: how to speak Silicon Valley
“Silicon Valley” has come to mean not just a location, or an industry, but a mindset expressed through a shared vocabulary, explain Julia Carrie Wong and Matthew Cantor: “the vocabulary of bullshit”. They compiled a lexicon for the layman.
Opinion
The harrowing image of a migrant and his young daughter drowned in the Rio Grande is strikingly reminiscent of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy whose death in the Mediterranean moved Europe in 2015. But it should not take shocking pictures of the dead to shift our perspective on migrants, says Maya Goodfellow.
Just like in Europe, harsher policy doesn’t stop people from trying to come, it merely forces them to take more risks.
Sport
England will face Norway in the first Women’s World Cup quarter-final on Thursday, with the tournament shattering TV audience records around the globe. Trump warned the US goalscorer Megan Rapinoe not to “disrespect” her country after she said she would not visit the White House if the team successfully defends its title. Gemma Clarke says the fearless Rapinoe embodies the best of America.
In men’s soccer, meanwhile, Team USA beat Panama 1-0 to top their group in the Concacaf Gold Cup, setting up a quarter-final clash against Curaçao. And Wayne Rooney scored a screamer from beyond the halfway line in DC United’s MLS victory over Orlando.
Sign up
The US morning briefing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.
