Friday’s top story: Whistleblower alleges White House tried to cover up Trump-Zelenskiy call. Plus, Cleveland Browns fail to live up to the hype

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

Trump describes whistleblower’s source as a ‘spy’

The whistleblower complaint over Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine alleges not only that Trump used a call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to “solicit interference” in the 2020 election, but that the White House tried to cover up the conversation. The complaint was released in full on Thursday as the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, testified before the House intelligence committee on what he described as a “totally unprecedented” situation.

The New York Times is facing a backlash for publishing details about the whistleblower that could reveal their identity. But Trump told US staff members at the UN that he wanted to know the identity of the whistleblower’s source, describing them as “close to a spy” and adding: “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”

Fossil fuel industry more influential under Trump

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Fossil fuel bosses have already raised millions for Trump’s 2020 re-election effort. Photograph: Alamy

The fossil fuel industry’s bottom line has enjoyed a regulatory windfall under the Trump administration, not least the president’s unilateral withdrawal from the Paris climate change accord. That explains why Trump’s fossil fuel backers are already opening their wallets wide to help his 2020 re-election effort, reports Peter Stone. The coal magnate Robert Murray, for example, raised $2.5m for Trump at a single fundraising dinner in West Virginia in July.

EPA threat. The Trump administration has ramped up its feud with California by claiming the state’s homeless crisis is causing increased water pollution, and threatening action by the EPA.

Climate strike. Another wave of mass climate strikes are taking place around the world on Friday, including in Canada, Morocco, India, Italy and New Zealand.

EU could drop nuclear deal over Iranian non-compliance

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An Iranian Revolutionary Guards speedboat circles the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero, which was released by Iran this week. Photograph: Morteza Akhoondi/AP

The European Union has privately warned Iran that it will be forced to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal if Tehran makes good on a threat to take new steps beyond the boundaries of the agreement. Since the US exited the deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran, Tehran has taken three calibrated steps away from the conditions of the deal. Now it is threatening a fourth in November, at which point the agreement’s three EU signatories – France, Germany and the UK – say they would have to begin withdrawing, too.

Tanker released. Stena Impero, the British-flagged oil tanker seized by Iran in July, is preparing to leave the port of Bandar Abbas, a month after the release by UK authorities of an Iranian tanker in the Mediterranean.

Cheat sheet

The Trump administration has set the cap for refugees allowed into the US over the next fiscal year at 18,000, the lowest number since the US began its refugee program in 1980. More than 350,000 people are expected to seek asylum in that time.

The Church of England’s bishops have co-signed a letter saying the language of the Brexit debate has become unacceptable, as the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, refused to retract his controversial comments about the murdered MP Jo Cox.

Lawmakers in Mexico’s Oaxaca state have voted to decriminalise abortion , a win for reproductive rights advocates in the staunchly Catholic nation. It is the second jurisdiction in Mexico to scrap its abortion prohibitions; Mexico City did so in 2007.

Japan Airlines has unveiled a new tool on its seat reservation system allowing prospective passengers to see where infants aged between eight days and two years are seated – and thus to avoid being stuck next to a crying baby on a longhaul flight.

Must-reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The ‘bookstagram’ hashtag has been used on over 35m Instagram posts. Photograph: Folded Pages Distillery Instagram

Inside the cosy world of ‘bookstagram’

There is a corner of Instagram where book-lovers share stylised photos of their favourite tomes. The “bookstagram” hashtag has been used more than 35m times. Some bookstagrammers have over 100,000 followers. Yet even such an apparently cosy online community has its controversies, as Shelby Pope discovers.

The Palestinian entrepreneur bringing power to Gaza

When Majd Mashharawi left Gaza to visit Japan in 2017, she tells Saeed Kamali Dehghan, what caught her eye were the working streetlights. Gaza is plagued by regular power-cuts, so on her return Mashharawi launched SunBox, a company that offers affordable, off-grid solar power kits to families.

The blockbuster that wasn’t: a $14m Hollywood scam

Adam Joiner pitched his movie Legends to foreign investors as a steampunk Avengers, made up of 19th-century American heroes, which had already attracted distribution deals with Netflix and others. Unfortunately for those investors, the project didn’t really exist, as Jake Flanagin reports from Los Angeles.

The explosive return of Chris Morris

Chris Morris is the British satirist behind Four Lions, whose early TV projects launched the careers of Steve Coogan, Charlie Brooker and others. His latest film was inspired by the FBI’s attempts to manufacture terrorists. “We were a bubble species long before the internet,” he tells Catherine Shoard in a rare interview.

Opinion

Liberal and conservative centrists are eager to oust Trump so they can return to the power they previously took for granted, argues Samuel Moyn. What’s needed is not simply impeachment, but an entirely new politics.

Centrists simply want to return to the status quo interrupted by Trump, their reputations laundered by their courageous opposition to his mercurial reign, and their policies restored to credibility.

Sport

The Cleveland Browns appeared to have built a formidable team over the past year, including their second-year quarterback Baker Mayfield and a roster full of high draft picks. And yet, so far, this season has been a dud, writes Oliver Connolly.

Manchester City face Everton at Goodison Park, site of the worst defeat of Pep Guardiola’s managerial career. Liverpool travel to Bramall Lane, where they have not beaten Sheffield United since 1990. Can England’s top two clubs buck history? Those are two of 10 things to look out for this Premier League weekend.

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