Elizabeth Warren, Golden State Warriors, Women’s World Cup: Your Tuesday Briefing

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Good morning,

We’re covering a deal over the special counsel’s files, a fatal helicopter crash in Manhattan, and a critical win by the Golden State Warriors.

President Trump threatens further tariffs on China

Having concluded that his tariff threat worked against Mexico, President Trump has vowed to impose more tariffs against China if it doesn’t accept American trade demands.

The president said on Monday that he would place 25 percent tariffs on an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese goods if a planned meeting with President Xi Jinping did not happen this month during a Group of 20 summit meeting.

Economists and business leaders have rejected Mr. Trump’s assertion that the current tariffs are doing no harm to the American economy and say that the trade war is slowing global growth.

Related: Mexico’s foreign minister said on Monday that no secret immigration deal existed between his country and the U.S., but that policies might be changed. Mr. Trump has said that a “fully signed and documented” agreement will soon be revealed.

Another angle: Despite continuing trade tensions, estimates for company earnings have barely budged. Analysts have found it hard to quantify the costs of various on-again, off-again trade conflicts, or threats of future measures.

Justice Department shares Mueller documents

The department on Monday began providing Congress with what the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee called “interview notes, firsthand accounts of misconduct and other critical evidence” collected by the special counsel, Robert Mueller.

The precise scope or usefulness of the material was unclear, but Democrats believe it could shed light on possible obstruction of justice and abuse of power by President Trump.

What’s next: A vote is planned today on a measure that would empower the Judiciary Committee to take Attorney General William Barr and other subpoena-defying witnesses to court. But the panel’s deal with the Justice Department appeared to lower tensions.

Elizabeth Warren has big plans

The senator from Massachusetts has issued the largest number of detailed policy plans among the major Democratic presidential candidates — roughly 20 in all, on subjects as varied as Big Tech regulation, housing costs and Pentagon contracting.

Taken together, they could significantly remake the U.S. economy. Critics say her plans — many of which call for new regulations — would hurt business, stifle innovation and potentially harm the workers they are intended to help.

Another angle: Minnesota is the only state with a legislature that isn’t controlled by one party. With most legislative sessions over for the year, the laws passed show increasingly ideological agendas.

Smaller rivals join push against Big Tech

As government regulators increase scrutiny of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, companies from multibillion-dollar software makers to small businesses are lining up to complain.

“Obviously there is something going on in terms of monopoly,” President Trump said about tech giants on Monday. The companies have fought the idea that they act anticompetitively.

Quotable: “We’re in the moment where regulators hang a shingle and say, ‘We’re open,’” said Luther Lowe, an official at Yelp, the local search and reviewing site. “The dozens of companies who have been quietly venting in Silicon Valley can begin to form a single-file line.”

If you have 45 minutes, this is worth it

The day the music burned

A 2008 fire at Universal Studios Hollywood destroyed famous movie sets and a film and videotape archive. It was also the biggest disaster in the history of the music business — and almost nobody knew.

The Universal Music Group — the largest music company in the world — lost its entire West Coast archive. Hundreds of thousands of original recordings were lost, from musicians including Louis Armstrong, pictured above, Joan Baez and Eminem. The Times Magazine tells the story of the fire.

Here’s what else is happening

Helicopter crash in New York: A helicopter crashed onto the roof of a 51-story building in Midtown Manhattan, killing the pilot, the only person aboard. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said there was no indication of terrorism.

Iran’s nuclear goals: International inspectors said the country was increasing its production of nuclear fuel, defying restrictions under the 2015 deal that President Trump abandoned. Separately, The Times announced that its correspondent in Tehran had been barred from working since February by the Iranian authorities.

Images of travelers are stolen: Hackers have stolen tens of thousands of photographs of drivers in their cars and vehicle license plates from the Customs and Border Protection agency, officials said.

The Vatican on gender: The department overseeing Roman Catholic education rejected the notion that individuals could choose their gender identity, and argued that acceptance of flexible ideas of gender posed a threat to traditional families.

David Ortiz in U.S.: The former Red Sox star was flown to a hospital in Boston after surgery in the Dominican Republic, where he was seriously injured in a shooting.

From The Times: The New York Times announced that it would no longer publish daily political cartoons in its international edition, two months after one with anti-Semitic imagery was published.

Snapshot: Above, an idled barge along the Arkansas River. Flooding across the Midwest and South this spring has brought shipping traffic on many rivers to a near standstill, as the water is too high and too fast to navigate.

N.B.A. finals: The Golden State Warriors avoided elimination by beating the Toronto Raptors, 106-105. Toronto leads the series three games to two. Game 6 is Thursday.

Women’s World Cup: The U.S. begins defending its title today at 3 p.m. Eastern against Thailand. On Monday, Canada edged Cameroon, 1-0, while Argentina and Japan played to a scoreless draw.

Late-night comedy: Several hosts speculated about a secret immigration deal with Mexico: “What if America is making Mexico the 51st state?” Trevor Noah said.

What we’re reading: This article in The New Yorker. “Some growers have seen the future, and it has robotic farm workers,” says Kevin McKenna, a deputy business editor. “This recent piece tells how GPS and A.I. are being tapped to design machines that pick crops — day and night.”

Now, a break from the news

And now for the Back Story on …

The E3 games convention

Thousands of video game industry workers, fans and journalists will fill the Los Angeles Convention Center today as the Electronic Entertainment Expo, known as E3, begins its three-day run.

The annual trade show, once described as “35 football fields filled with video games,” is far from the largest games convention in terms of attendance.

But since its inception in 1995, it has anchored a frenzied period of the year for the industry.

The preshow news conferences are often a spectacle. In 2006, Bill Gates directly appealed to the gamers. This year, Keanu Reeves greeted a roaring crowd from the Xbox stage after revealing his casting in CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077.

Sony, which promoted its original PlayStation console at the inaugural E3, is absent from the event for the first time, while Google detailed its Stadia streaming service.

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

— Chris

Thank you
To Mark Josephson, Eleanor Stanford and Kenneth R. Rosen for the break from the news. Brian Hoerst, a Forza fan who provides technical support from our London newsroom, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at [email protected].

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about the Yellow Vest movement in France, part of our series about the rise of nationalism and populism in Europe.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Women’s World Cup highlights (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Our journalists traveled to more than 160 countries last year.