Here\u2019s what you need to know at the end of the day.<\/b>
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Good evening. Here\u2019s the latest.
1. \u201cI\u2019m not in the business of determining when lies are told to the American people. I am in the business of determining when a crime has been committed.\u201d
Attorney General William Barr spent much of the day answering questions from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee about the special counsel\u2019s report on Russian election meddling and possible obstruction of justice.
Democrats pressed Mr. Barr on why he had not publicly acknowledged concerns about his original summary and why he said that Mr. Trump had cooperated fully with the investigation when he tried to thwart it.
Republicans focused not on Mr. Trump or Mr. Mueller\u2019s report but on Hillary Clinton\u2019s emails and the former F. B. I. officials who opened the Russia investigation. We have video clips and takeaways from the hearing.
Hours after Mr. Barr finished testifying, a congressional aide said the attorney general was expected to skip a House hearing Thursday on the Mueller report. He and Democrats have fought over its format.
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2. The attorney general spent much of his time defending his four-page summary of the Mueller report.
Minutes before Mr. Barr was set to testify, the Justice Department released a letter from March that showed a deep a rift between the special counsel Robert Mueller and Mr. Barr. Mr. Mueller criticized the summary as failing to capture the \u201ccontext, nature and substance\u201d of the 448-page document.
\u201cThe letter is a bit snitty, and I think it was probably written by a member of his staff,\u201d Mr. Barr said at Wednesday\u2019s hearing.
In our Opinion section, the former F. B. I. director James Comey offers his take on Mr. Barr\u2019s handling of the Mueller report.
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3. The national firefighters\u2019 union endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden. President Trump responded on Twitter.
In an early-morning blizzard of 60 tweets and retweets, Mr. Trump attacked the union\u2019s leadership. The number is unusual even for Mr. Trump, and it seems a clear sign that Mr. Trump is anxious about the loyalty of the rank-and-file union voters he reached in 2016. Above, Mr. Biden at a campaign event in Pittsburgh on Monday.
In other Washington news, the White House asked Congress to allocate $4.5 billion in emergency funds for the southwestern border as federal agencies struggle to address the influx of asylum seekers coming into the U. S.
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4. The Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 called on civilians to rise up against President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro for a second day of protests, imploring supporters to show a mighty May Day presence.
But it was unclear whether the antigovernment demonstrations were a convincing rejoinder to the setback Mr. Guaid\u00f3 suffered on Tuesday, when he failed to convince the military to switch sides.
Separately, French police officers fired tear gas after violence broke out at the May Day labor rally in Paris, with masked vandals mixing with demonstrators, smashing vehicles and throwing rocks.
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5.\u201cHe took the assailant off his feet,\u201d a police chief in North Carolina said. \u201cAbsolutely, Mr. Howell saved lives.\u201d
He was speaking of Riley Howell, 21, a student who tackled a gunman at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte on Tuesday evening. He saved many lives, but lost his own. Above, a prayer gathering near the university last night.
The authorities have declined to speculate on the motive for the shooting. A 22-year-old suspect has been charged with 12 crimes, including two counts of murder. Here is what we know \u2014 and still don\u2019t know \u2014 about the attack.
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6. Heads are still rolling in the college admissions scandal.
Prosecutors are pursuing more parents in the nation\u2019s largest-ever college admissions investigation, spreading fear in Southern California\u2019s elite circles. Some have been informed that they are under investigation. Others worry that they will be.
\u201cThis is the only thing they can think about,\u201d one lawyer said.
We also tracked down a Chinese family who paid $6.5 million to try to get their daughter admitted to Stanford University, pictured above, as a recruited athlete.
Separately, two fraternities at Swarthmore College said they would disband after the release of more than 100 pages of internal documents in which members discussed sexual misconduct and referred to a \u201crape attic.\u201d
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7. Female athletes with elevated male hormones can be barred from track races against other women, the highest court in sports ruled.
The landmark ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport was a defeat for the South African athlete Caster Semenya, a two-time Olympic champion at 800 meters, who had challenged proposed limits placed on female athletes with naturally elevated levels of testosterone. Above center, Ms. Semenya at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
In a statement, her lawyers said they may appeal the decision, arguing that her \u201cunique genetic gift should be celebrated, not regulated.\u201d
In other sports news, C. Sabathia of the Yankees became the 17th pitcher, and only the third left-hander, to reach 3,000 strikeouts.
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8. A fossil found in a Tibetan cave suggests that an ancient human species once roamed across much of Asia.
Until now, fossils from the species known as Denisovan had been found in just one Siberian cave. The Denisovans are members of a mysterious lineage of Neanderthal-like humans that disappeared about 50,000 years ago.
The Tibetan fossil, found by a Buddhist monk in the area pictured above, was a jawbone at least 160,000 years old, making it by far the oldest evidence of humans on the Tibetan plateau. Modern Tibetans have a special genetic inheritance from Denisovans that allows them to live at high elevations.
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9. And now for a stop in the most biodiverse desert in the world.
Our writer drove through the Devil\u2019s Highway, a 130-mile dirt road in the Sonoran Desert that carries sad reminders of its history. For centuries it has been notorious as a route along which people die.
But El Camino del Diablo also offers mesmerizing views of the Arizona desert, and is home to more than 275 animal species and 400 types of plants.
Want to try it? Our writer suggests bringing plenty of water and an adventurous spirit.
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10. Finally, a spy whale.
Fishermen off the coast of Norway came across an unusual sight last week \u2014 a beluga whale with a strapped harness that had mounts for GoPro-type cameras. \u201cSt. Petersburg equipment\u201d was embossed on the harness clips.
Norwegian scientists said they believed the whale was trained by the Russian Navy. The use of marine animals for military use isn\u2019t that unusual, explains our reporter, a former Navy officer.
Dolphins, whales and sea lions have all been trained to carry out missions \u2014 limited to finding and marking things, then exiting the area.
\u201cThere are no weaponized dolphins,\u201d he writes.
Have a whale of a night.
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