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Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
May to hail ‘great partnership’ as Trump dangles trade deal
Donald Trump said his UK visit was “going really well” following his first day in London. Theresa May is expected to hail the “great partnership” between the US and Britain at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday, while Trump tweeted that a “big trade deal” awaits after Brexit. But the opposition Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, skipped the state banquet at Buckingham Palace, and instead plans to join anti-Trump protests on Tuesday, while Labour’s foreign spokesperson described the president as a “sexual predator” and a “racist”.
Kushner clearance. Jared Kushner has again raised concerns around his White House security clearance status, by saying in a TV interview that he doesn’t know whether he would alert the FBI if approached privately again by Russia.
China suppresses commemoration of Tiananmen anniversary
The Chinese government has stepped up security measures to discourage public commemoration of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, which took place 30 years ago today. Thousands of protesters were killed by security forces in the regime’s 1989 crackdown on the pro-democracy movement, but the event has been all but erased from the country’s history books. On Tuesday, tourists at the square in Beijing faced extra security checks, while foreign journalists were forbidden to enter.
Ai Weiwei. The Chinese artist and activist says the west has been complicit in Beijing’s long cover-up of the massacre: “The west bought into the excuse that Chinese society would become more democratic after it became richer.”
Purdue Pharma facing lawsuits from almost every US state
The manufacturer of OxyContin, the prescription painkiller that has become a symbol of the opioids crisis, is now facing legal action from almost every state in America for its part in the deadly epidemic. California, Maine, Hawaii and the District of Columbia all filed lawsuits against Purdue Pharma on Monday, taking the total number of states taking such action to at least 45.
Sackler family. California and Maine also sued members of the Sackler family who have served on the company’s board. Purdue’s founders, the late brothers Raymond and Mortimer Sackler, still controlled the firm when it launched OxyContin in 1995.
New Tennessee law ‘will suppress African American votes’
Voting rights activists in Tennessee say a new law targeting voter registration drives is designed to suppress minority voters. The law, signed by Governor Bill Lee last month, imposes fines – and in some cases criminal charges – on those who turn in significant numbers of incomplete or incorrect registration forms. Activists say it will discourage groups whose very purpose is to collect large numbers of such forms, to help minority voters exercise the franchise.
‘Unconstitutional obstacles’. Lawyers have filed suit against the state on behalf of six voter registration groups, saying the law puts “unconstitutional obstacles” on their activities.
Crib sheet
Sudan’s ruling military council has called snap elections and cancelled all its previous agreements with the coalition of opposition parties, a day after security forces opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in the capital, Khartoum.
The UN deputy high commissioner for human rights has said the attack on women’s rights represented by US abortion policy is a form of “torture” and “extremist hate”, which amounts to “gender-based violence against women”.
A trans woman migrant from El Salvador has died while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Texas after pleading repeatedly for medical assistance, in an echo of the case of a Honduran trans woman who died in detention in 2018.
A group of 21 young climate activists are to face the US government in court in Oregon on Tuesday, where their lawyers will argue that fossil fuel development on public lands violates their generation’s constitutional right to an environment free of climate catastrophe.
Guns and lies in America
Despite the national epidemic of mass shootings, daily gun violence in California’s Bay Area has dropped 30% in the past decade. In a new series, Guns and Lies, the Guardian examines this unlikely success story – and the people who made it happen – and asks whether it can be replicated elsewhere.
Must-reads
How HBO’s Chernobyl recreated a nuclear meltdown
The acclaimed HBO miniseries about the reactor meltdown at Chernobyl has gone to incredible lengths to depict its fallout faithfully. Julie McDowall talks to the production, wardrobe and makeup designers who helped to recreate the Soviet-era disaster on screen.
From ‘food deserts’ to processed food ‘swamps’
Researchers have long warned of so-called “food deserts”, where people have little or no access to fresh produce. For the Guardian’s Toxic America series, Gabrielle Canon investigates the spread of “food swamps”, where more and more Americans are filling their grocery baskets solely with processed food.
Therapy secrets from across the world
In Nigeria, those with mental disorders often end up consulting a faith healer. In Russia, people fear being put on the wrong list if they see a therapist. As part of the Guardian’s new mental health series, psychiatrists and psychologists from around the world reveal how their cultures translate to the couch.
The ‘latent misogyny’ of the Hare Krishna community
The close-knit, ascetic Hare Krishna movement is facing a stark choice: whether or not to allow women to become gurus. The group’s more conservative members say the issue is complicated, others believe the resistance is simple misogyny. Jordan Blumetti reports.
Opinion
Critics of the Green New Deal ask whether the US can afford to implement it. But the climate emergency threatens civilisation itself, argues Joseph Stiglitz – so can we really afford not to?
When the US was attacked during the second world war no one asked, ‘Can we afford to fight the war?’ It was an existential matter. We could not afford not to fight it. The same goes for climate change.
Sport
The image of “that impossible Herculean demigod” Anthony Joshua being knocked down by the “tubby underdog” Andy Ruiz Jr is a glorious reminder that nothing is impossible. It’s a story that transcends boxing, writes Jack Bernhardt.
Liz Thomas had seen much of the world on foot, and held the speed record for the legendary Appalachian Trail before she began hiking America’s cities. The “Queen of Urban Hiking” recently completed a 225-mile trail through New York. She tells Anya Alvarez why.
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