Newsletter: Today: Don’t Trust, But Verify.

I'm Davan Maharaj, editor of the Los Angeles Times. President Obama says the key to the Iran nuclear deal isn't "trust," but "verify." More revelations about "El Chapo's" prison escape rile up Mexicans. Here are some story lines I don't want you to miss today.

TOP STORIES

Don't Trust, But Verify

"This deal is not built on trust," President Obama said. "It is built on verification." He may have identified the trickiest part of the pact to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. We've been down this road before. Remember those cat-and-mouse games with U.N. inspectors in North Korea and Iraq? The U.S. says the new rules are strict and Iran would have much to lose by flouting them. 

Bad Deal, Good Deal

Iran eventually will make a bomb anyway. It will still have centrifuges to enrich uranium. It will get back billions of dollars that it can use to sow trouble in the Middle East. It will be able to obtain sophisticated missiles. Here's a look at the main criticisms of the Iran nuclear deal and how the White House is responding.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Drug boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's prison break fascinates, and outrages, Mexicans. How do you build a mile-long tunnel at a maximum-security prison without anyone noticing? Turns out there were a few things that should have set off alarms, or at least suspicions. Folk-song writers, meanwhile, are having a field day chiding Mexican leaders with clever narco-corridos. 

'Uncle Xi' Goes to Market

When Chinese President Xi Jinping proclaimed that China's prosperity should rely "on the real economy, not on bubbles," people took it to heart. As stocks rose, tens of millions of Chinese piled into "Uncle Xi's bull market," often borrowing money to do it. Now, Xi's struggle to arrest a market free-fall is testing his capitalist prowess -- and perhaps his future as China's leader.

Who Gets to Watch?

It's a vexing question as police departments deploy cameras in cars and on officers: When, if ever, do you make the video public? It was key to a dispute over a fatal police shooting in Gardena, which the city settled for $4.7 million. After a legal fight with news media, a federal judge ordered police dash cam video of the shooting released. Other cities are taking note.

CALIFORNIA

-- A male UC San Diego student's successful fight to overturn a sexual assault finding against him is getting national attention. 

-- State regulators may give themselves a new drought weapon: limits on landscape watering at newly built houses, businesses and schools.

-- Botched billing and bad publicity may make it harder for the L.A. water officials to sell the public on rate increases.

-- Opponents of the state's new mandatory vaccine law are cleared to start gathering signatures for a referendum to block it.

NATION-WORLD

-- An Alabama construction company agrees to pay $20 million to guest workers from India who alleged they were kept in squalid labor camps.

-- A bill in Congress could essentially ban so-called gay conversion therapy nationwide.

-- Here's a detailed graphic on the NASA New Horizons flyby of Pluto. And here's what's next for the spacecraft.

-- Greece's prime minister begins the tough job of selling to legislators an austerity program European leaders require as a condition of a financial bailout.

BUSINESS

-- Reddit's chief engineer quits after less than two months.

-- The owner of the U.S. Bank Tower in downtown L.A. plans a rooftop observatory for tourists.

-- June retail sales dipped 0.3% from the previous month. May sales were revised downward.

-- A few tips to pare down your gasoline costs.

SPORTS

-- The Angels' Mike Trout is the MVP as the American League tops the National Leaque 6-3 in the All-Star Game to gain home-field advantage again in the World Series. Pete Rose gets a pregame standing ovation.

-- The latest scores, stats and schedules.

ENTERTAINMENT

-- The Shanghai Disney theme park trades Main Street for the Garden of Twelve Friends.

-- Lester Holt is on a ratings roll as the successor to Brian Williams on "NBC Nightly News." 

-- Controversy brews over the selection of Caitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce Jenner, as the recipient of the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs. 

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- Luv u l8r. The Economist reviews "Modern Romance," a book exploring love in the tech age.

-- Spiegel International: Forgotten Nazi arms caches in the forests of Normandy turn into a bonanza for historians.

-- The Village Voice looks at the 10 absolute worst journalists in movies.

ONLY IN CALIFORNIA

"This drought is changing California and the West. So we're going on a road trip. ... We'll strike up conversations, hike to lakes that are disappearing, follow the rivers that are still running. We'll take a detour or two when someone tells us there's something we just have to see." Join Pulitzer Prize-winning Times writer Diana Marcum and her crew as they begin a unique journey. 

Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.