Newsletter: Today: Britain Goes on High Alert

Britain is mobilizing troops to help protect key locations from another potential terror attack. I’m Davan Maharaj, editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times. Here are some story lines I don’t want you to miss today.

TOP STORIES

Britain Goes on High Alert

As Britain mourns those killed in Monday night’s suicide bombing at a concert in Manchester, the government is warning that another attack could be imminent. Investigators are looking at a possible connection with Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed 22 people, while military personnel were deployed at key locations around the country. The bomber has been identified and four men arrested. Manchester’s mayor struck a defiant tone: “We are united, we will not let them win.” Here is the latest.

Trump Heads to the Vatican, but Congress Wants to Hear About the Kremlin

President Trump met Pope Francis today on the European leg of his grueling trip, but back in Washington, the drip-drip of details about what led to the investigation of Russian involvement in the presidential election continues. Former CIA Director John Brennan told Congress that the agency received intelligence last summer indicating Trump’s campaign aides were in contact with Russian government officials. Meanwhile, the Senate Intelligence Committee issued two subpoenas for Michael Flynn’s businesses.

More Politics

-- With healthcare in turmoil, Senate Republicans are under pressure to push back against Trump.

-- “So amazing and will NEVER FORGET!” Trump’s guest book signing at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum made some people cringe.

-- Trump’s standing in the polls has dropped: How significant is the slide?

-- Who wins and who loses in Trump’s budget proposal? This graphic breaks it down.

How an LAPD Officer Pleaded His Way to Probation

The video from 2014 is undoubtedly disturbing: It shows LAPD Officer Richard Garcia running to the middle of a South L.A. street, where two other officers were holding a man on the ground. Garcia kicks the man near his head, then uses a knee, elbow and fist to strike him repeatedly. Thanks to a plea deal with prosecutors, a felony charge against Garcia was dropped — and he got two years of probation. Now, activists are letting their displeasure with Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey be known.

A Story You Won’t See on Fox News

Fox News is again making headlines of its own. Since Bill O’Reilly’s ouster and amid a stream of bad news for Trump, the longtime ratings powerhouse has seen viewership drop. What’s more, another host is at the center of a media storm. Sean Hannity said he is the target of “liberal fascism” trying to silence him from talking about a conspiracy theory alleging that Democratic staffer Seth Rich may have been killed because he provided emails to WikiLeaks. The network retracted an online story about the slaying, and Rich’s parents say the theories “are baseless, and they are unspeakably cruel.”

In Cannes, Virtual Reality Meets Border Reality

If you go to the Cannes Film Festival this year, prepare to be transported … to the Arizona desert. There, you’ll join a group of desperate immigrants who are confronted at gunpoint by U.S. authorities as they attempt enter the country. This scene playing out in a hangar 20 minutes from the Croisette is the work of Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, and it’s the first virtual-reality project to be an official Cannes selection. “We are using the highest technology to express the stories of the people treated like the lowest in society,” he says.

MUST-WATCH VIDEO

-- A massive new landslide along California’s coastal Highway 1 has buried the road under a 40-foot layer of rock and dirt.

-- Former CIA Director John Brennan explains why we should care about the investigation into Russian meddling.

-- Surfers are bummed about the sharks off San Clemente.

CALIFORNIA

-- A Culver City defense contracting engineer has pleaded guilty after trying to forge a pact with phony Russian spy a la “The Americans.”

-- Gov. Jerry Brown took a tour of southeast Los Angeles County to meet with activists who have criticized his administration for doing too little to protect residents’ health.

-- Here are seven things you need to know about how Trump’s budget would affect schools in California and nationwide.

-- Endless winter? California ski resorts are planning to keep the slopes open this summer.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- Roger Moore has died at age 89. Watch him in action in all seven of his James Bond films.

-- Al Gore is back and still battling climate change with “An Inconvenient Sequel.” Times film critic Kenneth Turan caught up with him in Cannes.

-- Times art critic Christopher Knight says L.A.’s newest showcase for contemporary art has an opening a show that is a winner, but the Marciano’s collection is more iffy.

-- Author Neil Gaiman says he will do a dramatic reading of the Cheesecake Factory menu if fans raise $500,000 for a refugee charity.

CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

Producer, songwriter and musician T Bone Burnett called him “the Homer of our time,” and last year Bob Dylan was honored as the Nobel laureate for literature. Today, the voice of a generation turns 76.

NATION-WORLD

-- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law on Mindanao after a city on the island was rocked by clashes between government forces and Islamist militants.

-- Salt Lake City police are on the hunt for four people captured on surveillance video stealing a 700-pound statue of Mormon prophets Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.

-- Not so high anxiety: States are moving quickly to protect their pot industries.

-- In 2016, scientists discovered 18,000 new species. Meet the Top 10.

BUSINESS

-- The median home price in Los Angeles County has reached the all-time high set in 2007: $550,000. Is it a sign the market is overheated?

-- An Orange County jury awarded $256.5 million to a former Southern California car dealer who alleged that Nissan’s financing arm forced him out of business.

-- Google is watching you. Now it’s keeping an eye on what people buy in physical stores.

SPORTS

-- Runner Danny Harris took silver at the 1984 Summer Olympics and won three NCAA titles. Then, cocaine addiction brought him down. But life on the streets taught him some lessons.

-- Call it the Super Bowl Reshuffle. Los Angeles will host the big game in February 2022 now that the Inglewood stadium is delayed.

OPINION

-- The Manchester bombing and Trump’s dubious Middle Eastern strategy.

-- It’s time to acknowledge the genocide of California’s Indians.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- After he was reprimanded at school, a 16-year-old boy committed suicide. “I think they wanted to scare him straight,” his mother says. “Instead, they scared him to death.” (Chicago Tribune)

-- The residents of some Baltimore-area rental complexes have lots of complaints, but not many of them know Jared Kushner is the landlord. (ProPublica)

-- Music file sharing, 1920s-style: the lathe. (Wired)

ONLY IN L.A.

The play “Fefu and Her Friends” is set in the home of an eccentric socialite. So where better to stage it than at Hollyhock House, designed in the early 1900s by Frank Lloyd Wright for heiress Aline Barnsdall? It’s probably the only play you’ll see where the audience must first don protective booties.

Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.

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