Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
Miller may be behind agency’s ‘near-systematic purge’
Donald Trump has said he will remove Randolph “Tex” Alles, the director of the Secret Service, which protects the president and other key figures, as one anonymous official described a “near-systematic purge” of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The announcement came a day after the resignation of the DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, which is thought to have been orchestrated by the influential, anti-immigration White House adviser Stephen Miller.
Immigration policy. A pillar of Trump and Miller’s immigration plan may be thwarted after a federal judge in San Francisco blocked the administration’s policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico as they wait for a court to hear their cases.
Scathing critique. David Miliband, the president of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and a former UK foreign secretary, has told the Guardian that Trump’s border policy amounts to “disorder by design”, adding: “The US government is failing in its most basic responsibilities.”
Experts say DoJ’s new emoluments clause stance ‘blurs lines’
The so-called foreign emoluments clause is intended to prevent foreign interests from corrupting US government officials with gifts and other benefits. But legal and national security experts say that under Trump, the Department of Justice has taken a new approach to the law, which has allowed countries including Saudi Arabia and China leeway to curry favour with the president via deals with his hotels, golf courses and other businesses.
Foreign influence. The DoJ changed course in 2017, argues the law professor Kathleen Clark in a forthcoming article. “Instead of defending the republic against foreign influence, the department is defending Trump’s ability to receive money from foreign governments,” she writes.
Felicity Huffman to plead guilty to college admissions scam
Felicity Huffman and 12 other parents are to plead guilty to fraud charges as part of the college admissions cheating scandal. The Desperate Housewives actor was accused of paying a consultant, Rick Singer, $15,000 to help falsely boost her older daughter’s SAT score, to ease her way into an elite college. The authorities say the actor also discussed doing the same for her younger daughter, but ultimately decided against it.
William H Macy. Singer met with Huffman and her husband, the actor William H Macy, to discuss the plan. Macy has not been charged in the case, though authorities have not said why.
May flies to Berlin and Paris to ask for another Brexit delay
The UK prime minister, Theresa May, was again under pressure from several sides on Tuesday, as she travelled to Berlin and Paris to meet Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron and press the case for a further Brexit extension until 30 June. The German and French leaders will demand to know what May believes she can achieve by then, while at home some of her Conservative backbenchers are still calling for her resignation over her attempts to reach a Brexit compromise with the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
Article 50. Backbench MPs have passed historic legislation, which gives them power over the government to delay article 50 and prevent a no-deal Brexit.
EU decision. But any extension is likely to come with EU conditions, and if EU leaders decide to deny the UK another article 50 delay on Wednesday, the country is still on track to crash out of the EU without a deal at 11pm on Friday.
Crib sheet
Nine leading members of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy “umbrella movement” have been convicted of public nuisance charges over their involvement in protests demanding free elections in 2014.
The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has replaced his controversial, far-right education secretary with a conspiracy theorist who once claimed crack had been deliberately introduced to Brazil by communists.
The world’s first drone delivery service has been granted approval to start delivering food and medication in the Australian capital, Canberra. Project Wing is an offshoot of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
A 60ft-tall, headless bronze statue by Damien Hirst has been unveiled at the new Kaos club, part of the Palms resort in Las Vegas. The British artist also designed a bar as part of the resort’s $620m renovation.
Shades of Black series
Today in the Guardian’s continuing series on colorism, Aurielle Marie writes about navigating Tinder as a queer, dark-skinned black woman, while DeWanda Wise recounts how – as a dark-skinned actor – she had to make her own movie to attract Hollywood’s attention.
Must-reads
The sordid tale of boyband mogul Lou Pearlman
Lou Pearlman was the mastermind behind both the Backstreet Boys and N*Sync – but he was also ripping them off. As a new documentary about the controversial pop kingmaker comes to YouTube, Lance Bass tells Eamonn Forde: “There will always be people out there trying to take advantage of young entertainers.”
My infant son’s struggle with food
When Tahmima Anam’s son came home from hospital months after his premature birth, she thought the worst was over. But then he refused to eat – for five years. After paediatricians, nutritionists, teachers, psychologists and others failed to resolve the issue, Anam turned to a specialist hospital in New York.
The deadly toll of illegal gold mining
Tens of thousands of women risk death, disease and sexual violence to scrape a living in South Africa’s informal mining sector. Many have moved there from neighbouring Zimbabwe, where conditions are even worse. Christopher Clark reports from Johannesburg.
Opinion
#MeToo is about to make it to the stage and screen, with two plays about Harvey Weinstein and a new TV drama about Roger Ailes and Fox News. But if the movement was meant to give a voice to silenced women, notes Yomi Adegoke, then why are all these stories being told by men?
It doesn’t bode well for women in the film industry if, even in instances where they are the mobilisers of a movement, it is men who still dominate its narrative.
Sport
A season after becoming the first No 1 seed ever to lose to a 16, the Virginia Cavaliers are celebrating their first NCAA tournament title, thanks to an NBA-ready performance from De’Andre Hunter, who led them from a 3-point deficit to an 85-77 overtime win against Texas Tech on Monday night.
Eden Hazard scored both goals in Chelsea’s 2-0 Premier League win over West Ham on Monday, a virtuoso display that will leave Blues fans wondering who can replace the Belgian when he almost certainly leaves for Real Madrid.
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