Thursday’s top story: impeachment talk intensifies after Mueller says he did not exonerate Trump. Plus, has human activity sparked a new geological epoch?

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

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Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.

Mueller statement hardens partisan battle lines

Cory Booker has joined several other Democratic presidential candidates in calling for impeachment proceedings to begin against Donald Trump, following Robert Mueller’s first – and possibly only – public statement regarding his special counsel investigation. In his plainly factual statement, Mueller said his report did not exonerate Trump of obstruction of justice, but his late intervention appears merely to have hardened existing battle lines between critics and allies of the president.

Pelosi holds fire. The Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, continued to tamp down talk of impeachment after Mueller’s statement, saying nothing is “off the table” but that the majority of her caucus were still wary of the idea.

Women’s fertility app is funded by anti-abortion campaigners

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Handmaid-themed protesters march in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, to protest the state’s new ‘heartbeat’ law. Photograph: Emily Kask/AFP/Getty Images

A Guardian investigation has revealed a popular women’s fertility app is funded by anti-abortion, anti-gay Catholic campaigners, who use it to sow doubt about birth control. Femm, which developers say has been downloaded more than 400,000 times, has users in the US, the EU, Africa and Latin America. At least two of its medical advisers are not licensed to practice in the US and share close ties to a Catholic university in Chile, where access to abortion remains severely restricted.

Louisiana law. On Wednesday Louisiana became the latest state to pass a so-called ‘heartbeat’ law prohibiting abortions beyond the sixth week of pregnancy, when many women are still unaware of being pregnant.

Disney departure. The CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, has said Georgia’s strict new abortion laws will make it difficult for the company to keep filming in the state, where it has shot many of its biggest recent hits, including several in the Marvel series.

Netanyahu faces new election after coalition talks fail

Play Video 0:48 Israel faces new election as Netanyahu fails to form coalition – video

Israel’s parliament has voted to dissolve itself and hold new national elections in September, after the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, failed to form a governing coalition in the month since the previous poll. Netanyahu’s Likud party won the same number of seats as the opposition Blue and White party at the recent election, but Likud appeared better placed to form a majority with its allies in the Knesset. Yet Netanyahu struggled to negotiate the support he needed from the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party.

Political ego. Netanyahu blamed Yisrael Beiteinu’s leader, the far-right former defence minister Avigdor Lieberman, for the impasse, saying: “He has dragged the country to unnecessary elections due to his own political ego.”

USS John McCain reportedly kept out of sight for Trump visit

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The USS John S McCain leaves dry dock in Yokosuka, Japan last year. Photograph: Tyra Watson/AFP/Getty Images

The White House reportedly ensured Trump would not be reminded of his late political nemesis, Senator John McCain, during a visit to a US base in Japan this week, by requesting the navy conceal the name of the destroyer USS John McCain and give its sailors – who wear caps bearing their warship’s name – a day off. The Wall Street Journal cited an email from an official at the US Indo-Pacific Command to US navy and air force officers, saying the USS John McCain “needs to be out of sight” during Trump’s visit.

Navy denial. A spokesman for the US navy’s Seventh Fleet denied the report, telling the Associated Press: “All ships remained in normal configuration during the president’s visit.”

Trump uninformed. Trump said tweeted that he was “not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S McCain”.

Crib sheet

Seven South Korean tourists are dead after their sightseeing boat sank in the Danube in Budapest, after it collided with another vessel close to the heart of the Hungarian capital.

The US Department of Energy appears to be attempting to rebrand exported American fossil fuels as “freedom gas” , with the Trump administration’s undersecretary of energy dubbing it as such in a news release this week.

A girl thought to be the world’s tiniest surviving baby has been discharged from a San Diego hospital. The infant, Saybie, was born at 23 weeks and just 8.6 ounces. After five months in intensive care, she was sent home this week weighing 5lbs.

Residents of an apartment complex in Brooklyn are fighting their landlord’s effort to install a facial recognition system, in what could turn out to be an important test case over the new technology and the privacy concerns it raises.

Must-reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in the forthcoming sequel, Terminator: Dark Fate. Photograph: PR

How the ageing heroine became screen gold

Linda Hamilton has returned to save the Terminator franchise at 62. Last year Jamie Lee Curtis, 60, starred in a new Halloween movie. Older female stars are at last getting big action roles, because younger women started to get them 40 years ago, says Noah Berlatsky.

Have we entered the Anthropocene epoch?

Human activity has transformed the Earth in the blink of a geological eye, but is it enough for scientists to declare a new phase in the planet’s history? Nicola Davison talks to the scientists divided over whether we have entered the so-called “Anthropocene” epoch.

Toxic America: how gene-editing will change the way we eat

Today in the Guardian’s Toxic America series, Karen Weintraub reports on Crispr, the new gene-editing tool making it easier to manipulate our food. Meanwhile Susan Cosier says the world’s topsoil is fast disappearing, and with it our capacity to grow enough nutritious food.

The secretive marsh bird threatened by rising seas

The black rail was once found in 35 states. The wetland bird’s population has probably declined at least by 75%, but data is limited because it hides so well. Emily Holden goes looking for it in a shrinking habitat: the Louisiana wetlands, which are eroding faster than almost anywhere in the world.

Opinion

The success of the Brexit party in last week’s European elections leaves the UK starkly divided, says the former prime minister Gordon Brown, between a tolerant, fair-minded majority and the followers of Nigel Farage.

What is now at issue is far bigger than Brexit: it is a new battle for Britain. This is a battle against intolerance, prejudice, xenophobia and the manufacture of distrust and disunity.

Sport

Eden Hazard says he has probably played his last game in a Chelsea shirt, after scoring twice during the club’s 4-1 Europa League final triumph over Arsenal in Baku on Wednesday.

Do the Raptors really have a shot against the all-powerful Warriors? The Guardian’s writers make their predictions for the NBA finals, while Aaron Timms assesses the annoying, ludicrous superfandom of Toronto’s biggest celebrity supporter, Drake.

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