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Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Trump administration draws battle lines with Congress
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, on Tuesday dismissed summons from House Democratic committee chairmen for five current and former state department officials to testify about the Trump-Ukraine scandal amid an escalating impeachment inquiry. Yet despite Pompeo’s claim that Democrats were trying “to intimidate, bully, and treat improperly” the officials, at least three have signalled their willingness to testify. Pompeo has only limited power to stop the congressional committees from gathering evidence for an impeachment inquiry.
International developments. The attorney general, William Barr, met UK intelligence officials and discussed enlisting their help in discrediting the Mueller inquiry, it has emerged, while a prosecutor in Ukraine who fed information about the Biden family to Rudy Giuliani is being investigated for alleged ties to underground gambling.
Trump allies divided. Washington Republicans have so far failed to present a coherent defence against impeachment, says Tom McCarthy, while infighting over the scandal at the president’s favourite news network has spilled on to the screen.
Khashoggi murder still roiling the Middle East, one year on
A year since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi assassins at the country’s consulate in Istanbul, the fallout from the killing continues to vex the entire region, as the Guardian’s Middle East correspondent, Martin Chulov, explains. Before Khashoggi’s death last October, the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was starting to overcome his country’s doubters with a programme of reform. Today, he is isolated and weakened, and his relationship to the Trump administration under scrutiny.
No justice. Despite the outsized political impact of his death, Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, says the Trump administration and the international community have still taken no direct action to bring his killers to justice.
Former Dallas cop guilty of murdering Botham Jean at home
There were chants of “black lives matter” in a Dallas courtroom on Tuesday, as a white former police officer was found guilty of murdering her black neighbour at his home last September after confusing his apartment for her own. Amber Guyger argued that she had a right to use lethal force when she shot dead Botham Jean, believing the innocent 26-year-old was an intruder in her home – only to later realise she had entered his property by mistake.
Held accountable. Guyger is the first Dallas police officer to be convicted of murder since the 1970s. The guilty verdict was hailed by the Jean family’s lawyer as “a victory for black people” and a signal that “police officers are going to be held accountable for their actions.”.
Anti-terror centre helped police track environmental activists
A federally sponsored anti-terrorism centre in Oregon helped a taskforce that was monitoring environmental protest groups in the state, according to documents obtained by the Guardian. The Oregon Titan Fusion Center, part of a national network established to monitor terrorist activities after 9/11, shared information with the South-western Oregon Joint Task Force, which was surveilling opponents of the $10bn Jordan Cove energy project. The ACLU and other observers argue that such activities break Oregon law.
State cooperation. The leaders of 45 international, national and Oregon-based environmental groups have written to the state’s governor, Kate Brown, urging her to withdraw state cooperation from any such surveillance of activists.
Cheat sheet
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has taken the rare step for a royal of suing the publisher of the Mail on Sunday newspaper for publishing a private letter she wrote to her father, as Prince Harry launched a scathing personal attack on the UK’s tabloid press.
Trump suggested shooting migrants in the legs, electrifying the Mexican border wall and fortifying it with spikes, and even digging a moat filled with snakes or alligators to deter migrants, according to a new book excerpted by the New York Times.
Politicians in Syria’s Kurdish-led north-east have demanded western assistance to help de-radicalise the region, by establishing a war crimes tribunal for the foreign Isis fighters still being held there in overcrowded prisons and refugee camps.
Boris Johnson is expected to make his “final” Brexit offer to the EU in a speech at the UK Conservative party’s annual conference on Tuesday, including a customs border in Ireland – a plan already rejected by Dublin and other European capitals.
Must-reads
Warren rises, but still needs African-American votes
Elizabeth Warren has pulled away from the Democratic pack, leading Joe Biden in key primary states and even some national polls. But she still has work to do if she wants to wrest African-American support from the former vice president, as Lauren Gambino reports.
Growing up in America’s murder capital
In a city where 13 black children were killed with guns this summer alone, being close to home and family is still no guarantee of safety. Lauren Aratani reports from St Louis on what it’s like to grow up – and to raise children – in the country’s murder capital.
Migrant workers killed by heat in Qatar
As construction ramps up ahead of the 2022 World Cup, the Guardian has found that hundreds of migrant labourers are dying of heat stress every year, after being forced to work in searing temperatures. Pete Pattison spoke to the family and co-workers of one such victim, 24-year-old Rupchandra Rumba.
The opioids ‘cartel’ in a small West Virginia town
The epicentre of America’s opioids epidemic might just have been Mingo County, an otherwise quiet, rural region of West Virginia. Chris McGreal learns how the tiny town of Williamson was home to what police call a “cartel” of doctors, pharmacists and drug firms.
Opinion
The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, was dragged into the Trump impeachment scandal after visiting Washington last week. But Australians seem to think a strong relationship with the US remains more important than who is in the White House, says pollster Peter Lewis.
While just one-third of Australians believe the Trump presidency has been good for Australia, that does not mean that a good relationship with Morrison reflects poorly on him.
Sport
Mauricio Pochettino has admitted his Tottenham team “gave up a little bit” in the second half of a brutal 2-7 home defeat to Bayern Munich on Tuesday night, with the former Arsenal winger Serge Gnabry scoring four to compound the humiliation. Elsewhere in the Champions League, Manchester City beat Dinamo Zagreb while PSG and Juventus topped their respective groups.
Young cyclists in Colombia risk life and limb by racing downhill on customised bikes at speeds of up to 77mph, a sport known as gravity biking. “It’s a way of life for anyone who lives up in the communes,” one teenage competitor tells Joe Parkin Daniels in Medellín.
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