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Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Public face of Trump’s border policy out after 15 months
Kirstjen Nielsen has resigned as Donald Trump’s secretary of homeland security after 15 months as the face of some of his most controversial policies. Nielsen, who accompanied Trump on a visit to the border last week, has faced the president’s ire on several occasions, and was reportedly castigated for her performance at a cabinet meeting last spring. Kevin McAleenan, currently the US Customs and Border Protection commissioner, will fill her role while a permanent replacement is chosen.
People smuggling. The trade in people smuggling is booming, with the profile of migrants shifting from single males to Central American families. And Trump’s immigration crackdown is partly to blame, as Sarah Kinosian reports from Guatemala.
Democrats fight for release of Mueller report and Trump tax returns
Democrats kept up pressure on the Trump administration over the weekend, as they continued to demand the release of the president’s tax returns, as well as the full text of the Mueller report. The acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said on Sunday Democrats would “never” see Trump’s tax returns, accusing the chair of the House ways and means committee, Richard Neal, of performing a “political stunt” by demanding six years of returns from the IRS.
Biased Barr? Jerry Nadler, the chair of the House judiciary committee, said he was still waiting for the attorney general, William Barr, to release Robert Mueller’s full report on Russian election meddling, warning that Barr – a Trump appointee – was “a biased person [and] an agent of the administration”.
Israel prepares for election seen as referendum on Netanyahu
Israelis will go to the polls on Tuesday in an election widely seen – at home and abroad – as a referendum on the 10-year rule of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. If he is re-elected, “Bibi” will almost certainly become Israel’s longest-serving leader. His supporters say he has kept Israelis safe and presided over a strong economy, but critics say the country has swung ever further to the right under his leadership, oppressing millions of Palestinians and burying any progressive efforts for peace.
Beto on Bibi. The Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke said on Sunday Netanyahu was “racist”, citing the prime minister’s election pact to form a governing coalition with Israel’s far-right, ultranationalist parties.
Master storyteller. Ayelet Gundar-Goshen says the secret to Netanyahu’s success is his skill as a storyteller – and the narrative he has presented to Israelis is a simple one of good versus evil.
World’s biggest democracy heads to the polls
More than one-eighth of the world’s population will have a chance to cast their votes for the next government of India in the coming weeks, when the world’s biggest democracy holds its election over seven separate days from 11 April to 19 May, at a cost of approximately $6.5bn. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party is expected to emerge on top again, thanks to a new jobs quota, cash handouts to farmers and the conflict with Pakistan, despite several recent opposition victories in state elections.
Symbolic vote. Approximately 300 million Indians are unable to read, so each political party is assigned a small symbol to identify them on the ballot paper. The BJP’s symbol is a lotus flower, while the main opposition, Congress, is a hand.
Crib sheet
Tom Wolf, the governor of Pennsylvania, has denied he ordered the acceleration of permits for the 350-mile Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipeline, which is under criminal investigation for environmental and property damage.
The New Jersey senator, Cory Booker, has raised just $5m in two months for his presidential campaign, fundraising figures that put him far behind the other key contenders for the 2020 Democratic nomination.
New Zealand’s privacy commissioner has condemned Facebook after the social network unwittingly hosted a livestream of the Christchurch attacks. In a tweet, John Edwards described the company as “morally bankrupt pathological liars”.
A rhino poacher is believed to have been killed by an elephant and then eaten by a pride of lions in South Africa’s Kruger national park.
Shades of black: a series on the politics of skin colour
For a new series, Shades of Black, the Guardian asked 27 black women to speak out on colorism: the discrimination based on skin complexion that exists in the black community. Today, Dream McClinton asks whether colorism is to blame for the low marriage rate among darker skinned black women, while Stephanie Yeboah opens up about her toxic love affair with skin lighteners.
Must-reads
24 hours in Game of Thrones merchandise
With the final season of Game of Thrones mere days away, Rich Pelley fills a whole 24 hours with nothing but Westeros-themed merchandise, from pulling on his Winter is Coming underpants to a nightcap dram of Oban Little Bay Night’s Watch Reserve.
The women fighting back against killer robots
Jody Williams and Mary Wareham were leading campaigners in a global effort to ban landmines, for which Williams won a Nobel prize. Now, they tell Melissa Chan, they’re trying to halt the rise of lethal autonomous weapon systems, or Laws – AKA killer robots.
Atlantic City: ‘Trump turned this place into a ghost town’
Brian Rose’s photographs comprise a portrait of the broken city behind Trump’s billionaire boasts. “When Trump failed with his casinos,” Rose tells Thomas Hobbs, “he turned Atlantic City into a ghost town. His legacy still haunts the boardwalk.”
Opinion
Barack Obama says he worries Democrats are becoming a “circular firing squad”, attacking their own for “straying from purity”. But Bhaskar Sunkara says the 44th president is stuck in the past – and strident progressivism is the future of the party.
Incrementalism during the Obama years were small steps to nowhere, ones that far from cementing a new progressive majority actually helped open the door to the populist right.
Sport
The Golden State Warriors would be far from the first franchise to relocate, but by moving across the Bay from their unlovely but beloved Oakland home to wealthy, white San Francisco, the team is sacrificing some of what made it great, says Devin Gordon.
Baylor clung on to their lead in the NCAA women’s championship game on Sunday night, beating Notre Dame 82-81 in a nail-biter, to claim their third title of the century.
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• This article was corrected on 8 April to delete a reference to migration into the US being at its highest level in decades. In fact, the total number of migrants reaching the US southern border is significantly down from its peak in the early 2000s.
