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Good morning,

We’re covering the special counsel’s first comments on his investigation and a setback for Israel’s prime minister. We also have a preview of the N.B.A. finals, which start tonight.

Robert Mueller declines to clear President Trump

The special counsel publicly discussed his investigation of Russian election interference for the first time on Wednesday. He did not absolve Mr. Trump of obstruction of justice, saying: “If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”

Mr. Mueller said that Mr. Trump’s conduct had warranted criminal investigation, even though it was impossible to indict a sitting president. He seemed to cast the president’s conduct in a more damning light than Attorney General William Barr did six weeks ago, when he portrayed the investigation as vindicating Mr. Trump. We have video of Mr. Mueller’s statement, and a transcript of his comments.

Reaction: Mr. Mueller spoke on his last day as special counsel, saying it was his final word on his investigation. But with calls growing for impeachment proceedings, some House Democrats pushed to get him to testify.

News analysis: Mr. Mueller’s appearance “proved as polarizing and unsatisfying as almost everything else about the two-year investigation he led,” our chief White House correspondent writes.

The Daily: Today’s episode is about Mr. Mueller’s statement.

Israel moves to hold new elections

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to meet a midnight deadline to form a new government, a stunning defeat for a leader nicknamed “the magician” for his political wizardry.

Mr. Netanyahu appeared to have won a fourth consecutive term just seven weeks ago. But a struggle between ultra-Orthodox and secular ultranationalist factions stymied his efforts to form a coalition.

Looking ahead: Israelis will return to the polls, probably on Sept. 17. It’s the first time the country has had to hold a new national election because of a failure to form a government after the previous vote.

Why it matters: The reopened political season is likely to overshadow and perhaps delay the Trump administration’s peace efforts.

Worrying signs in the bond market

We know, bonds are boring. But the financial world, much of which usually focuses on stocks, is turning its attention to the bond market because of powerful signals of trouble ahead for the U.S.

Falling yields and dropping inflation expectations suggest to investors that the Federal Reserve will need to cut interest rates, and that the risk of a recession is real.

Closer look: Our senior economics correspondent explains how the so-called inverted yield curve and signs of political trouble could be warnings about the global economy.

If you have a half an hour, this is worth it

Hope for tiny hearts, then trouble

“Would I have my children have surgery here?”

Patients with complex heart conditions had been dying at higher rates, some doctors suspected. Now, children undergoing less risky surgeries were also faring poorly.

Secret audio recordings provided to The Times offer a rare, unfiltered look inside North Carolina Children’s Hospital, part of the respected University of North Carolina medical center in Chapel Hill. Pediatric cardiologists there considered their ethical obligations while their bosses worried about the reputation of the surgical program.

UNC had a higher death rate than nearly all of the 82 institutions that publicly report numbers, according to limited data from the hospital. The turmoil underscores concerns about the quality and consistency of health care across the country.

Here’s what else is happening

Abortion restrictions: Louisiana lawmakers voted to ban the procedure after an ultrasound can detect the pulsing of what will become the fetus’s heart, as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, has said he would sign the measure. Separately, officials at Disney and Netflix said they would consider halting productions in Georgia, which has approved a similar law.

Facebook criticism: Speaker Nancy Pelosi rebuked the social network, saying its refusal to take down altered videos of her demonstrated how it had contributed to Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Mount Everest deaths: Officials in Nepal said they would consider changing the climbing permit system for the world’s highest peak, where at least 11 people have died this year. Veteran mountaineers have blamed an increase in inexperienced climbers.

Request to hide a warship: The White House asked the Navy to hide a destroyer named after Senator John McCain during President Trump’s visit to Japan this week, White House and military officials said Wednesday. Navy officials said they didn’t abide by the request, and Mr. Trump said he hadn’t known about it.

Snapshot: Above, fossilized fish — 259, to be exact — that were discovered by a biologist on vacation in Japan. The remains were found in a slab of limestone estimated to be about 50 million years old.

Stanley Cup finals: The St. Louis Blues scored in overtime to beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2, and even the series at one game apiece.

N.B.A. finals: The Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors tip off at 9 p.m. Eastern. Read our preview.

French Open results: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka cruised into the third round. Here are today’s results for the women and the men.

52 Places traveler: In his latest dispatch, our columnist explores Aalborg, Denmark’s fourth-largest city, which has replaced faded factories with a high-design waterfront.

Late-night comedy: Most shows are in reruns, so our column is taking the week off.

What we’re reading: This deep dive into the Lakers organization from ESPN. Tom Jolly, who oversees 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

Cook: Burrata, a creamy cousin of mozzarella, lifts a simple spaghetti with garlic-chile oil.

Watch: The Elton John biopic “Rocketman” is “fan service of an especially and characteristically generous kind,” our critic writes.

Listen: In “Actually Virtual,” Flying Lotus pulls us down a dark path with cryptic prophesies and the allure of danger, our critic writes.

Read: Tony Horwitz, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who died on Monday, returns to our hardcover nonfiction best-seller list with “Spying on the South,” a biography of the journalist and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

Smarter Living: Career success doesn’t always equal happiness. But goals are necessary to our sense of well-being. So what do you do when achieving something leaves you empty inside? A psychology expert suggests setting multiple goals in your work and personal life — and not sacrificing too much for any single one.

And our Travel editors share their suggestions and advice for vacationing with children.

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.”

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. In the months leading up to his death, his health was front-page news.

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

— Inyoung and Chris

Thank you
To Mark Josephson, Eleanor Stanford, Chris Harcum 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 [email protected].

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about Robert Mueller’s statement.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Podcaster’s need (3 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The Times’s crossword editor, Will Shortz, is also the founder and director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

Inyoung Kang is an editor and producer based in London. @inyoungk

Chris Stanford writes the U.S. edition of the Morning Briefing. He also compiles a weekly news quiz. He joined The Times as a home page producer in 2013, before which he worked at The Washington Post and other news outlets. @stanfordc

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