Thursday, May 30, 2019 | View in browser

Good morning,

We’re covering the special counsel’s first public statement on the Russia investigation, a re-examination of policies for climbing Mount Everest and Pokémon’s new frontier.

By Alisha Haridasani Gupta

Breaking

Israel will hold new elections in about three months, after factional squabbles scuttled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to form a coalition government — the first time in the country’s history that has happened.

Robert Mueller, the special counsel, at the Justice Department on Wednesday. Doug Mills/The New York Times

Mueller declines to clear Trump

In his first public remarks on the two-year-long Russia inquiry, the special counsel, Robert Mueller, declined to clear President Trump of obstruction of justice.

“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mr. Mueller said, reiterating a statement that was in his report.

He said that his team decided not to charge Mr. Trump because of longstanding Justice Department policies, but noted that the Constitution offers other methods to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing — a hint at Congress’s impeachment powers. Here’s a transcript of his statement.

Though Mr. Mueller didn’t rule out testifying before Congress, he said he would speak only about the facts in the report and nothing more. And throughout his brief appearance, he remained coy, leaving his intentions and conclusions open to interpretation.

Response: Democrats saw Mr. Mueller’s remarks as a fresh call for them to investigate the president.

Mr. Trump maintained that they made little difference, tweeting, “The case is closed!”

Perspective: Among those wishing the special counsel had been more forthcoming are our Opinion contributor Michael Tomasky and the actor Robert De Niro.

Huawei ramps up legal battle against U.S.

The Chinese telecommunications giant filed a motion to expedite its lawsuit over the White House’s decision to limit access to its products for national security reasons.

Huawei filed its lawsuit in a federal court in March. Its request for a summary judgment could let the company avoid handing over sensitive information and give it a chance to present arguments publicly in just a few months, rather than waiting for the trial to unfold.

Huawei says that the ban on its products is unconstitutional because it singles out the company for punishment without trial.

Quotable: “The U.S. government has provided no evidence to show that Huawei is a security threat,” Song Liuping, the company’s chief legal officer, said at a news conference in Shenzhen. “There is no gun, no smoke. Only speculation.”

Renault-Fiat merger plan puts Nissan in a bind

Executives of the Renault-Nissan alliance said they had an “open and transparent discussion” about Renault’s proposed merger with Fiat Chrysler in a board meeting, but they disclosed little else about their plans.

Nissan has tried to put a good face on the situation after being left out of the talks; the company was informed of the merger just before the announcement on Monday. But its chief executive, Hiroto Saikawa, did not issue a statement after the meeting.

Keeping Nissan out of the loop might have been deliberate. The Europeans were worried that their Japanese partner might feel threatened by the idea and try to interfere with the proposal, according to people familiar with the matter.

Implications: Without Nissan, Fiat and Renault would be a far less formidable combination, with a weak presence in China, the world’s biggest car market.

A long queue of climbers on Mount Everest this month, a dangerous consequence of overcrowding. Rizza Alee/Associated Press

Nepal considers tightening access to Mount Everest

Officials said they might change the rules about who is allowed up the world’s highest peak after at least 11 climbers died this month in one of the deadliest climbing seasons ever.

Almost anyone can get a permit to climb the mountain, but this year the perilous trails have been marred by human traffic jams and a surge in inexperienced mountaineers.

Government officials are now considering requiring all climbers to submit proof of mountaineering experience and a certificate of good health.

Go deeper: The climbers who died came from India, the U.S. and Europe. Here’s what we know about them.

If you have 10 minutes, this is worth it

Revisiting a deadly fire in London

Daniel Leal-Olivas/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Two years after a blaze at Grenfell Tower killed 72 people, The Times has assessed the British government’s response and found that tens of thousands of people are still at risk.

About 16,000 private apartments are still wrapped in the kind of exterior cladding that fed the Grenfell fire, and many of the business-friendly policies that allowed the tower to be built cheaply remain in place.

Here’s what else is happening

Myanmar: A radical Buddhist monk has been charged with sedition over what prosecutors say are defamatory remarks he made about the nation’s civilian leader, the Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The monk has accused her of foiling the military’s efforts to defend the Buddhist-majority nation against what he calls a Muslim onslaught.

Boris Johnson: The front-runner to replace Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain and one of the most prominent faces of the Brexit campaign has been summoned to court over allegations that he lied to the public during the referendum in 2016, particularly with the misleading suggestion that Britain paid around $440 million to the E.U. every week for membership.

Denmark: The government has rejected the final asylum appeal by a 72-year-old Afghan woman with increasingly advanced dementia. Zarmena Waziri is facing possible deportation within weeks.

Televised trade debate: Trish Regan, a host on Fox Business Network, will face off in a live debate about trade and technology with Liu Xin, a host on China Global Television Network, on Wednesday night in the U.S. (Thursday morning in Australia and China).

Mizumoto et al.

Snapshot: Above, fossilized fish — 259, to be exact — swimming together. The remains were discovered by a biologist who was on vacation in Japan.

Pokémon: The Japanese company plans to release Pokémon Sleep next year, aiming to do for overnight rest what Pokémon Go did for walking — encourage it.

Op-Ed from the Future: In the first installment of Opinion’s new series, the award-winning science fiction writer Ted Chiang imagines a gene-enhancement project that ends up widening the wealth gap.

What we’re reading: This deep dive into the Lakers organization from ESPN. Tom Jolly, who oversees production of our daily print edition, says it “reveals the team’s deeply flawed front office, including the two sides of a former star — the personable Magic Johnson and the much more difficult Earvin Johnson.”

Now, a break from the news

David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Cook: Burrata, a creamy cheese similar to mozzarella, lifts this simple dinner of spaghetti with garlic-chile oil.

Watch: Netflix’s latest horror movie, “The Perfection,” is designed for real-time online reaction.

Read: Kristen Arnett’s “Mostly Dead Things” is an irresistible first novel set in Central Florida, featuring a family of taxidermists grappling with suicides and ruthless intimacies.

Smarter Living: Career success doesn’t always equal happiness. But at the same time, goals are necessary to our sense of progress and well-being. So what do you do when achieving something leaves you empty inside? A Harvard-trained positive psychology expert suggests laying out multiple concurrent goals in and out of your work life — and not sacrificing too much for any single one.

And if you have children, our Travel editors have some suggestions and advice for family travel from their own experiences.

And now for the Back Story on …

Walt Whitman

Tomorrow we celebrate the 200th birthday of the American literary giant who sought to bring his rhythmic prose-poetry to the masses.

But before he was known as the “good gray poet,” Walt Whitman cut his teeth as an apprentice at a weekly newspaper, The Long Island Patriot, and he continued to work as a journalist for years after publishing the first edition of “Leaves of Grass.”

A portrait of Walt Whitman in 1870. Library of Congress

As editor of The Brooklyn Daily Times in 1857, Whitman reported on the citywide gang war between the Dead Rabbits and the Bowery Boys, and in editorials he was a sharp critic of Mayor Fernando Wood.

When he lived in Washington during the Civil War, he wrote of the wounded in military hospitals for several New York papers, including The Times.

As his success grew, Whitman’s bylines turned into headlines. And in the months leading up to his death, his health was front-page news.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Alisha

Thank you
To Mark Josephson, Eleanor Stanford and Kenneth R. Rosen for the break from the news. Will Dudding, an assistant in the standards department, wrote Today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about a White House plan targeting climate science.
• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Not in the know (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The New York Times’s crossword editor, Will Shortz, is also the founder and director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.