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

Bannon predicted financial disclosures would ‘take down’ Trump

The former White House adviser Steve Bannon believes the Trump Organization is a “criminal enterprise”, and predicted Donald Trump would eventually be brought down by financial disclosures that reveal the president to be “just another scumbag”, according to a new book. The remarks come from Siege: Trump Under Fire, an account of Trump’s second year in office by Michael Wolff, the author of last year’s controversial bestseller Fire and Fury.

Mueller indictment The Guardian obtained a copy of Wolff’s book, which also claims special counsel Robert Mueller drew up an obstruction of justice indictment against Trump before deciding to shelve it – a claim flatly denied by a Mueller spokesman.

Missouri could become first US state without abortion clinic

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An anti-abortion campaigner outside the Planned Parenthood clinic in St Louis. Photograph: Lawrence Bryant/Reuters

Missouri health officials have refused to renew the licence for the Planned Parenthood clinic in St Louis, meaning the state could soon be the first in the US without an abortion clinic since the US supreme court’s 1973 Roe v Wade decision cemented abortion as a constitutional right. Meanwhile the supreme court has chosen not to rule on an Indiana measure that would prevent women having terminations based on gender, race or disability.

‘Eugenics’ threat In a 20-page opinion on the Indiana provision, Justice Clarence Thomas, who supports overturning Roe v Wade, warned that abortion was in danger of “becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics”

Record string of tornadoes leaves one dead and 130 injured

Play Video 1:14 Aerial footage shows scale of destruction after tornado in Dayton, Ohio – video

More than 50 tornadoes have torn through the central US in the past week, leaving at least one person dead, 130 injured and property damage across eight states from Idaho to Indiana. Monday marked the 11th straight day with at least eight tornadoes in the US, tying a record set in 1980. On Tuesday, the destruction continued with a large twister near Kansas City.

Damaged states The worst of the damage was in Indiana and Ohio, specifically in the region around Dayton, where an 81-year-old man died after a vehicle entered his home.

Japan mourns victims of mass stabbing

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A student prays at the site of the mass stabbing in Kawasaki. Photograph: Jiji Press/EPA

The head of the Caritas Gakuen elementary school in Kawasaki, near Tokyo, has said his “heart is broken” after the mass stabbing on Tuesday that left 11-year-old Hanako Kuribayashi dead and several other pupils injured. Also killed in the attack was 39-year-old Satoshi Oyama, a foreign ministry official who had been seeing his daughter off to school when the attack occurred at the bus stop. His daughter was unharmed.

The attacker The assailant was identified as 51-year-old Ryuichi Iwasaki, who stabbed himself in the neck after being pursued by the bus driver, and later died in hospital.

Safe space Japan has had several mass stabbings in recent years but is still considered one of the safest countries in the world.

Crib sheet

Police in Myanmar have issued a warrant for the arrest of a prominent Islamophobic monk known as the “Buddhist Bin Laden”, over incendiary comments he is alleged to have made about Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Malaysian government has announced it intends to send up to 3,000 tonnes of imported plastic waste back to countries including the US, UK and Australia, because it was too contaminated to recycle.

Staff at a private prison for immigrants in Georgia have been accused by a former detainee of sexual harassment and voyeurism, including making video streams of inmates showering and using the toilets.

Saudi-Qatari relations appear to be thawing after diplomats from Qatar travelled to Saudi Arabia to prepare the ground for Qatar’s attendance at a regional summit in Jeddah.

Must-reads

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ava DuVernay on the set of When They See Us, her new Netflix series about the Central Park Five. Photograph: Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix

Ava DuVernay: ‘I was uniquely prepared to tell this story’

As a teenager, inspired and outraged by the convictions of the Central Park Five, Ava DuVernay wanted to be a lawyer. Thirty years later, the film-maker is revisiting the case with a four-part miniseries for Netflix. “I’d only be able to make this film now, having done everything I’ve done before,” she tells Jake Nevins.

Should 2020 Democratic hopefuls appear on Fox News?

Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg have held successful town halls on Fox News, while several of their 2020 presidential rivals have vowed to shun the network. David Smith examines the Democrats’ dilemma: engage with Fox and its audience, or join their base in condemning it.

Stories from seven decades of the People’s Republic of China

It is 70 years since Mao Zedong stood in Tiananmen Square and declared the beginning of the People’s Republic of China. Since then, the country has transformed from a poor, agrarian society into an economic superpower. Lily Kuo speaks to those who have lived through those changes.

Toxic America: the hidden chemicals in your groceries

Today in the Guardian’s series on the chemicals in Americans’ everyday lives, Mićo Tatalović speaks to researchers concerned by the presence of potentially harmful nanoparticles in food and packaging, while this tool can tell you which foods in your grocery basket contain chemicals that are banned in Europe.

Opinion

Red meat may be damaging our health, and its production is damaging the planet. But the problems are too complicated to be solved by a simple red meat tax, argues philosopher Julian Baggini.

Enthusiasm for the meat tax risks making the age-old mistake which results in misguided policy initiatives: a genuine problem is identified, but then a simple and simplistic solution is proposed.

Sport

The Golden State Warriors are expected to win their fourth NBA title in five seasons. But in Kawhi Leonard, their unfancied opponents the Toronto Raptors have a player capable of facing down the juggernaut, writes Oliver Connolly.

World No 1 Naomi Osaka almost crashed out of the French Open in the first round after losing the opening set 0-6 to Anna Karolina Schmiedlova on Tuesday. But though the Slovakian served twice for the match, Osaka finally recovered to win 0-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1.

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