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Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Group withdraws from federal program to avoid referral ban
Planned Parenthood has said it will withdraw from the federal family planning program, rather than abide by the Trump administration’s new “gag” rule, which prohibits clinics from referring women for abortions. The Title X program serves 4 million women and distributes $260m in grants to clinics. Planned Parenthood’s acting CEO, Alexis McGill Johnson, said the group’s health centres – which treat some 40% of Title X patients – would stay open while striving to make up for the loss of federal funds.
El Salvador acquittal. A young rape victim who was suspected of having an abortion and charged with homicide in El Salvador – where abortion remains illegal and carries heavy penalties – has had her conviction overturned at a retrial.
Lawsuit alleges ‘torture’ in America’s migrant jails
Fifteen plaintiffs and a pair of not-for-profit groups have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 55,000 migrant detainees, alleging “horrific conditions” and “torture” in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention centers. The plaintiffs, who live with conditions including cerebral palsy, bipolar disorder and blindness launched the suit in Los Angeles on Monday, accusing the US government of failing to provide food, medicine, surgeries and even basic accommodation for migrants with disabilities.
Food allergies. Melvin Murillo Hernandez, 18, has several life-threatening food allergies but was not given a special diet for more than six months in Ice custody, and was hospitalised four times due to anaphylactic shock.
No wheelchair. Officers at an Ice facility in California took away Faour Abdallah Fraihat’s wheelchair for more than two years, leaving him unable to visit the yard or the cafeteria. He also lost vision in one eye after being refused surgery.
Ilhan Omar urges lawmakers to visit Israel ‘to see the reality’
The Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar has urged colleagues in Congress to visit Israel after she and fellow Muslim congresswoman Rashida Tlaib were last week barred from entering the country by Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration – apparently at the urging of President Trump. “As legislators we have an obligation to see the reality there for ourselves,” Omar said at a press conference on Monday, accusing Trump and Netanyahu of “hiding the cruel reality” of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
BDS movement. The first two Muslim women in Congress were banned from visiting Israel over their support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) for Palestinian rights.
Tlaib offer. Israel later said Michigan-born Tlaib could visit her elderly grandmother in the West Bank if she did not promote the international boycott of Israel, but she ultimately refused the “humiliating” conditions.
Hong Kong leader calls for fresh ‘dialogue’ with protesters
Hong Kong’s chief executive has said she will set up a platform for “dialogue” with the territory’s pro-democracy protesters, after an estimated 1.7 million people staged a peaceful rally on Sunday, at the end of an 11th week of mass demonstrations that frequently descended into violence between protesters and police. Carrie Lam said she hoped the talks “can be built upon a basis of mutual understanding and respect”, but activist leaders quickly dismissed her invitation as a “trap”.
Twitter crackdown. Twitter says it has removed almost 1,000 accounts and suspended thousands of others that were tied to a Chinese government campaign targeting Hong Kong protesters.
China detention. A Hong Kong native employed by the city’s UK consulate has been placed in “administrative detention” in China for unknown reasons, during a visit to the mainland.
Crib sheet
California has adopted the strictest law to curb police killings of any state in the US, on the same day the New York Police Department fired officer Daniel Pantaleo over his involvement in the 2014 death of Eric Garner during an attempted arrest.
World stock markets have ticked up after Trump heaped fresh pressure on the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates, in a tweet that also accused Democrats of “trying to ‘will’ the economy to be bad for purposes of the 2020 Election”.
Jeffrey Epstein signed a will just two days before he killed himself in jail, new court records have revealed. The document valued the disgraced financier’s estate at more than $577m, including more than $56m in cash.
Families of some of the estimated 1 million missing Uighurs detained in camps by the Chinese authorities have started sending messages to their relatives using the social media video app TikTok, in hopes of locating loved ones.
Must-reads
How an obsession with school shooters led to a murder plot
After James Gamble and Lindsay Souvannarath met online in 2014, their shared obsession with the Columbine massacre led them to plot their own mass shooting. Rachel Monroe tells their story in an extract from her new book, about women’s abiding fascination with true crime.
How rising temperatures will transform our cities
From blackouts to melting asphalt, the climate crisis is going to fundamentally alter life in urban America. As part of the Guardian’s Sweltering Cities series, our reporters look at how authorities are scrambling to protect rising populations from the rising temperatures.
Charles Bukowksi remembered at last by his own home town
Visitors to San Pedro in Southern California often ask where they can find the monument to the town’s most famous literary son, Charles Bukowski. Until recently, the answer was: there isn’t one. But now a local historian is campaigning to change that, as Andrew Gumbel reports.
The casino workers fighting to form – and keep – their unions
Workers have successfully voted to form a union at six Nevada properties operated by Station Casinos, the third largest private employer in Las Vegas. But the billionaire Trump allies behind the firm have embarked on an underhand campaign to stop them, finds Michael Sainato.
Opinion
Google has at last tweaked its algorithm so a search for “lesbian” returns a Wikipedia entry and newspaper comment pieces instead of page after page of porn. But big tech firms are still guilty of reducing LGBT+ people to their sex lives, says Hannah Jane Parkinson.
Gay YouTubers have found that their videos are being demonetised, made inaccessible via search and age-restricted. This, despite the fact many of these videos consist merely of interviews, advice and comedy sketches.
Sport
Three years ago, Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem, starting a conversation that inspired an entire generation of athlete activists to find their voices. But now, says Etan Thomas, it is time to hear directly from Kaepernick again.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær has insisted Paul Pogba will continue to take penalties for Manchester United, after the Frenchman missed his fourth spot-kick in a year on Monday evening, allowing Wolves to hold United to a 1-1 draw at Molineux.
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