Trump says Saudi prince may be behind Khashoggi death … Bolton confirms US withdrawal from nuclear treaty … white nationalist’s wife accuses him of physical abuse

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Good morning. I’m Tim Walker with today’s headlines. If you’d like to receive this briefing by email, sign up here.

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Top story: Republicans renew strategy of racial division

The caravan of more than 7,000 Central Americans moving steadily north through Mexico has become political ammunition for Donald Trump, who calls it an “assault on our country”. In Huixtla, David Agren hears migrants’ stories – of lives made impossible by violence, poverty and corruption – and Lauren Gambino reports on the Republicans’ midterm strategy: fear and racial division.

Tech support. Tech firms including Microsoft and Amazon are making millions from surveillance, detention and deportation tools under the Trump administration’s anti-immigration agenda, according to a report.

Family ties. Nevada gubernatorial hopeful Adam Laxalt is the latest Republican midterm candidate to be publicly disowned by his own family, 12 of whom wrote a critical op-ed in the Reno Gazette.

Trump says Saudi crown prince may be behind Khashoggi death

Play Video 0:45 'Worst cover-up ever': Trump on apparent Khashoggi murder plot – video

Trump has admitted for the first time that the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, a close ally of his administration, could have been involved in the brutal murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump’s comments, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, came after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, called for the “highest ranked” of the Saudis responsible for the killing to be brought to justice.

Arms trade. Justin Trudeau is unlikely to cancel a sale of Canadian armoured personnel carriers to Saudi Arabia. But Australia’s foreign minister refused to rule out a ban on arms exports to the kingdom.

Brief encounter. With the murder still casting a pall over Riyadh, Khashoggi’s son was summoned to meet the crown prince in a brief, stage-managed encounter.

US confirms withdrawal from nuclear arms treaty with Russia

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bolton and Putin meet at the Kremlin. Photograph: Alexei Nikolsky/Tass

John Bolton, the US national security adviser, confirmed on Tuesday that the US would withdraw from its Reagan-era intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty (INF) with Russia, after meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, at the Kremlin. Speaking in Moscow, Bolton said Russia had long flouted the treaty, and the US decision to withdraw was based on the “new strategic reality” of China’s rise as a superpower.

Nuclear-free. The INF treaty, which was signed in 1987, is widely credited with having kept nuclear missiles out of Europe.

White nationalist Richard Spencer’s wife accuses him of physical abuse

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Respectably dressed: neo-Nazi Richard Spencer. Photograph: Chris O'Meara/AP

The wife of the prominent far-right figure Richard Spencer has accused him of emotional and physical abuse in divorce filings. Nina Koupriianova says Spencer repeatedly said “the only language women understand is violence”, choked her, dragged her by her hair and tried to punch her while she was pregnant. The couple have two children.

Violent tendency. Matthew Heimbach, another leading US neo-Nazi, was arrested on domestic violence charges in March.

Atlanta Week: the problem with Stone Mountain

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Confederate memorial carving at Stone Mountain, near Atlanta. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

As part of the Guardian’s week of stories from Atlanta, Khushbu Shah visits Stone Mountain, the site of the nation’s biggest Confederate monument – aka “the KKK’s Mount Rushmore” – to ask whether it’s time to tear it down.

Crib sheet

Global markets plunged further on Tuesday, spooked by the prospect of a US-China trade war, rising US interest rates and the budget dispute between the EU and Italy.

Hurricane Willa made landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast near Mazatlán on Tuesday night, bringing 120mph winds and threatening up to 18 inches of rain in some areas.

Tall people are at greater risk of cancer simply because they’re bigger, and thus have more cells in their body at risk of dangerous mutations, a study has suggested.

The endangered Malayan tiger is facing the destruction of its Malaysian forest habitat, to make way for plantations to satisfy China’s appetite for the infamously smelly durian fruit.

Must-reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Widescreen wilderness: Red Dead Redemption 2. Photograph: Rockstar

The old west at a new frontier: the most realistic game ever

Rockstar’s latest blockbuster, the western adventure Red Dead Redemption 2, took seven years and hundreds of millions of dollars to complete. It’s a far cry from Pac-Man. Keza MacDonald goes behind the scenes of the most realistic video game ever made.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul: the director with an exploding head

The acclaimed Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul has “exploding head syndrome”, a condition that informed his new film with Tilda Swinton. He tells Hannah Ellis-Peterson about his work and its relationship to Thailand: “This country is so repressive, but is also very liveable – and I’m fascinated by that contrast.”

How New Hampshire became a battlefield for voting rights

It may not be the first swing state that comes to mind in a conversation about voting rights, but since Republicans took control of New Hampshire in 2016, they have targeted the voting rights of about 90,000 college students – or so say the young Democrats running to reclaim the Granite State.

Opinion

The Trump administration is reportedly considering rolling back trans rights by defining gender as fixed biology based on genitalia at birth. Alex Myers says his own long fight for recognition tells him he’ll be one of many thousands ready to resist.

The government wants to deny who I am. Wants to erase my identity. Wants to tell me who and what I can be, based on how I appeared at birth

Sport

The Red Sox outmatched the LA Dodgers in the first game of the World Series, winning 8-4 at Fenway Park, powered by a three-run homer from pinch-hitter Eduardo Núñez.

A dominant Cristiano Ronaldo helped Juventus to their 1-0 Champions League victory over his old club, Manchester United, at Old Trafford, with the United manager, José Mourinho, admitting the Italian team were at a “different level of quality”.

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