Monday’s top story: at least four people dead after mass shooting at Gilroy garlic festival. Plus, how climate change is forcing Guatemalans to choose between migration or starvation

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.

Police kill food festival assailant, with motive still unclear

Three people were killed and at least 15 injured when a gunman opened fire at a food festival in northern California on Sunday, before being shot dead by police. The suspect reportedly cut through a fence at the annual Gilroy garlic festival so his rifle would go undetected by the event’s security staff. The Gilroy police chief, Scot Smithee, told reporters officers engaged the suspect within a minute of his opening fire. The man’s motive remains unclear.

Second suspect. A second suspect was “involved in some way, we just don’t know in what way,” Smithee said at a press conference.

Democrats and media respond to more Trump racism

Play Video 1:20 CNN’s Victor Blackwell becomes emotional defending home town against Trump’s attacks – video

Washington spent the weekend once again arguing over Donald Trump’s racism, after the president attacked the African American congressman Elijah Cummings on Twitter and described his majority black Baltimore district as “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess”. Democrats, much of the media and the makers of the Baltimore-set drama The Wire responded with outrage, while the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, insisted to Fox News that the remarks had “zero to do with race”.

NAACP convention. At the annual meeting of the the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organisation in Detroit last week, 2020 Democrats were urged not to shy away from the subject of Trump’s overt racism, as Lauren Gambino reports.

Rodent problem. The president accused Cummings’ district of having a rodent problem, but his own restaurants have been criticised by inspectors for health code violations including live roaches, filth flies and live mice.

Dan Coats to depart as director of national intelligence

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Coats was one of the few remaining senior Trump officials prepared to publicly disagree with the president. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP

Dan Coats, the director of US national intelligence and one of the few remaining Trump administration officials prepared to contradict the president in public, is to depart next month and be replaced by a Trump loyalist. The president said on Sunday Coats would step down on 15 August, and that he planned to nominate the Texas congressman John Ratcliffe to the role. As the nation’s top intelligence official for two years, Coats often presented findings to the president that contradicted Trump’s policy aims.

Internal disagreement. Coats was forced to defend the intelligence community from criticism by the president on issues including North Korea and Russian election interference.

Police in Canada move manhunt for teen murder suspects

Play Video 0:17 Fresh footage of Canadian murder suspects released as police hunt continues – video

Police in Canada have sent armed officers, helicopters, dogs and drones to search the remote community of York Landing, Manitoba, in pursuit of teenage murder suspects Kam McLeod, 19, and Bryer Schmegelsky, 18. The fugitives were reportedly spotted scavenging food from a dump by members of the indigenous Bear Clan Patrol. People in York Landing, where the population is less than 450, were warned to stay indoors as the search continued.

String of killings. The two young fugitives are suspected of killing the Australian Lucas Fowler, 23, and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese, 24, and have already been charged in the death of a Canadian, 64-year-old Leonard Dyck.

Crib sheet

The jailed Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has been hospitalised with symptoms that one of his doctors said could indicate he had been poisoned.

At least 20 people have been killed and 50 injured in a suicide bombing and gun battle at the office of a vice-presidential candidate in Kabul, as Afghanistan gears up for elections amid near-daily attacks by the Taliban and Islamic State.

Riot police and protesters have clashed again in Hong Kong during a third straight day of pro-democracy demonstrations, as China’s representative office in the semi-autonomous territory prepared to hold a rare press conference regarding the unrest.

Syrian refugees in Beirut and Istanbul are reportedly being rounded up by Lebanese and Turkish immigration authorities respectively, and sent back to still-volatile areas of Syria, raising fears of mass deportations.

Must-reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ken Burns meets inmates at San Quentin after showing parts of his new documentary, Country Music, which features Johnny Cash’s performances at the prison. Photograph: Eric Risberg/AP

Ken Burns on America: ‘A strange and complicated people’

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has told the story of the US through masterful series on subjects including the Civil War, the old West, baseball and Vietnam. As he prepares to unveil his latest, Country Music, Burns tells Mark Lawson why he is “fiercely loyal to facts.”

How the climate crisis sparked an exodus to the US

Violence, poverty and corruption may have forced millions of Central Americans to flee their homes. But the climate crisis has also brought drought and famine to the region, fuelling an exodus that Americans see only when its victims reach their southern border. Nina Lakhani reports from Guatemala.

Can you afford to be green when you’re poor?

Politicians and corporations have placed the burden of environmental responsibility on the consumer. But it’s not that easy to be green when you’re barely getting by, as Alison Stine illustrates by keeping a diary of her attempts.

What is facial recognition – and how sinister is it?

Facial recognition is already close to ubiquitous, from tagging photos on Facebook to government surveillance, but many people still don’t know what it is, how it works – and whether to be concerned about its rise. Ian Sample explains the technology and its implications.

Opinion

When her community resisted the construction of a hydroelectric dam that threatened to contaminate their water, Wendy García was teargassed and arrested by Honduran police. She explains why she fled with her two-year-old son to seek asylum in the US.

In Honduras, money is power, and we, the poor people, don’t have access to justice.

Sport

Colombia is celebrating its first victory in the Tour de France, after 22-year-old Egan Bernal claimed the yellow jersey on Sunday, winning what his second-placed teammate Geraint Thomas said could be the first of many.

Two of Oakland’s celebrated sports franchises, the Warriors and the Raiders, have left or are leaving for new homes. Could a new soccer club, the Oakland Roots, give the city another sport to cheer for, ask Simon Campbell and Max Brimelow.

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