Tuesday’s top story: Trump scandal widens to reveal roles for Barr and Pompeo. Plus: why are so many black children being shot dead in one US city?

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

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

Australian government agreed to help discredit Mueller

The Trump impeachment scandal is spreading apace, with new reports implicating senior members of the administration and at least one other foreign government. William Barr, the US attorney general, and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, participated in contacts between Trump and leaders of at least four foreign countries, according to multiple reports, as the White House sought dirt to damage Joe Biden, Trump’s potential 2020 rival, and to discredit the findings of the Mueller inquiry.

Scott Morrison. The Australian government has confirmed Trump asked for the prime minister Scott Morrison’s assistance in an investigation designed to discredit the Mueller inquiry – and that Morrison agreed to help.

Impeachment poll. Public support for impeaching Trump has surged in the days since the inquiry was launched. Americans are now split 47/47 on the question of impeachment, according to a Quinnipiac poll.

Insider trading. The New York Republican congressman Chris Collins, who was the first member of Congress to endorse Trump in 2016, has abruptly resigned his seat and is expected to plead guilty to insider trading on Tuesday.

Man reportedly shot with live fire during Hong Kong protests

Play Video 1:44 China marks 70th anniversary with military parade – video

Huge crowds have turned out in Hong Kong on the 70th anniversary of Communist party rule in China in demonstrations that began peacefully but spiralled into some of the worst violence of the four-month-old protest movement. Police using live ammunition hit a man for the first time, in Tsuen Wan district, a police source told the South China Morning Post. In Beijing, the Communist party celebrated 70 years in power with a vast military parade. Follow live coverage of the Hong Kong protests here.

Progress at a cost. The past 70 years have seen extraordinary progress in lifespan, literacy and incomes in China – but at a terrible and wholly unnecessary cost.

State secrets. A 56-year-old California man who operates tours for Chinese visitors has been charged with delivering classified US national security information to China, US officials announced on Monday.

Amal Clooney proposes UN powers to probe activist deaths

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Amal Clooney said the UN special rapporteur had ‘ridiculously few resources’ to investigate Jamal Khashoggi’s death. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

On the eve of the anniversary of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder by Saudi officials, Amal Clooney has lamented the “glaring gap” in the world’s capacity to investigate such killings. Clooney, the UK special envoy on media freedom, said the UN special rapporteur who led the global body’s investigation of the Khashoggi killing, Agnès Callamard, “had been forced heroically to manage a large-scale investigation with ridiculously few resources”.

UN investigations. Clooney said she expected a specialist UK legal panel to champion a new UN investigatory mechanism designed specifically to examine state killings of human rights defenders and journalists.

Crown prince. In an interview with 60 Minutes to mark the anniversary of Khashoggi’s death on 2 October, the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, insisted he had no prior knowledge of the murder.

Johnson’s ‘secret Irish border plans’ dismissed by Dublin

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Boris Johnson at the UK Conservative party’s annual conference in Manchester. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney, has dismissed as a “non-starter” proposals by Boris Johnson’s UK government supposedly intended to solve the question of the Irish border after Brexit – one of the major obstacles to Britain’s departure from the EU. The plans, submitted to Brussels and seen by the Irish broadcaster RTÉ, reportedly involve customs sites on both sides of the border, contrary to Johnson’s promise not to reintroduce border infrastructure.

Out-of-date? On Tuesday morning, however, Johnson told the BBC that he believed the report was based on out-of-date proposals, insisting he would be making a “very good offer … very soon”.

Cheat sheet

Victims of a 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti that killed at least 10,000 people are petitioning the US supreme court to hold the UN accountable for the spread of the disease, which was introduced to the country by UN peacekeepers.

Martín Vizcarra, the president of Peru , has dissolved the country’s Congress in an effort to force through anti-corruption measures over the objections of his rightwing opponents, amid the country’s worst political crisis in two decades.

Archaeologists and environmentalists have expressed outrage at Chile’s decision to allow a Dutch-American businessman to use heavy machinery to search for a fabled 18th-century treasure trove on a sparsely populated Pacific island.

An iceberg approximately the size of Greater Cleveland has broken away from the Amery ice shelf in Antarctica. Though it is the first major “calving event” on the Amery shelf for 55 years, scientists do not believe it is related to climate change.

Must-reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A memorial to Xavier Usanga outside his home in St Louis. Photograph: Jeff Roberson/AP

The 13 children killed by guns in St Louis – in just six months

Seven-year-old Xavier Usanga was shot dead in a crossfire outside his home in August, a day before he was due to start second grade. He is just one of 13 black children fatally shot in St Louis over the past six months. Amanda Holpuch and Lauren Aratani report on a string of tragedies in America’s murder capital.

Debbie Harry on heroin, rape and staying happy at 74

The Blondie frontwoman has more good and bad experiences than most to pack into her new memoir, Face It. “You look back, and you think about all the mistakes you made,” she tells Emine Saner. “But, all in all, I guess I’ve been very lucky.”

The iPhone 11 reviewed

The iPhone 11 looks superficially identical to the iPhone XR, says Samuel Gibbs, the Guardian’s consumer technology editor. But Apple’s new lower cost smartphone has a better camera than its predecessor, and a longer battery life.

Cinema and the art of interior design

Interior design in films is an integral part of the narrative, writes the design critic Caroline Roux, with the power to add psychological layers to the action. Two contrasting cases in point: The Souvenir by Joanna Hogg, and Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory.

Opinion

A successful Green New Deal would link the climate crisis to the crises of economic and racial inequality, says Daniel Aldana Cohen, which is why the Democratic presidential nominee should be able to explain how their climate plan addresses the housing issue.

You can’t separate the carbon causing the climate emergency from our physical and economic systems, any more than you can separate windows, furnaces, and air conditioners from your monthly rent bill. And you can’t separate voters’ – and political organizers’ – desires for a safe and affordable home from their commitment to a stable climate.

Sport

The US anti-doping agency has banned the American distance running coach Alberto Salazar for four years for doping violations. Salazar, who trained the British four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah, is accused by Usada of “orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct” as head coach of the Nike Oregon Project, a camp designed primarily to develop US endurance athletes.

Erstwhile Premier League titans Manchester United and Arsenal battled to a thud-and-blunder 1-1 draw at Old Trafford on Monday, landing United in the top half of the table, despite the club’s least promising start to a season in 30 years.

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