Newsletter: Today: Cuba Si! Hola, El Niño.

I'm Davan Maharaj, editor of the Los Angeles Times. Cuba and the U.S. quietly bury a Cold War hatchet, but it's not all love and cigars; and El Niño could bring trouble, but mostly the kind we need. Here are some story lines I don't want you to miss today.

TOP STORIES

Close, But No Cigar

The U.S. and Cuba quietly reopened embassies in each other's capitals, all but ending a half-century-long Cold War standoff. The Cuban flag flies again in Washington, and John Kerry will become our man in Havana when he goes there to raise the U.S. flag Aug. 14. No cigars yet, though. There's still the little matter of the U.S. trade embargo. That'll be up to a wary Congress.

El Niño: Worth the Trouble

We're in a grueling drought, yet flood officials are planning for trouble. Why? El Niño's coming, or so climate scientists hope -- and fear a little. The phenomenon, a warming of equatorial waters in the Pacific, is a little complicated. We got a taste of it over the weekend, though, and a dose of the damage its storms can do. Trouble, perhaps, but it's the best chance to bust the drought. 

Sea Bass Pirates

Pity the Patagonian toothfish. You probably know it as Chilean sea bass, a name born of a wildly successful marketing scheme that has made it one of the most overfished species in the sea. An international effort to enforce fishing rules is on, but rust-bucket pirate ships still operate with impunity in remote waters. Here's the mysterious tale of one vessel on the run, the Kunlun. 

Tribal Warfare

The Crow Tribe holds sway on a 2.2-million acre reservation in the northern Plains. The Lummi live on a tiny peninsula 1,000 miles away on the northern reaches of Puget Sound. How could they possibly be at war? The answer involves coal, fish and plans for a rail terminal. "It's not tribe against tribe," says one Lummi leader. "It's a resource against a resource." 

It's the Economy, as Always

No matter who faces off in the presidential election, voters will choose between two starkly different views of government. Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton summed it up in economic policy speeches. Bush says government is the problem. Clinton says it's part of the solution. Bush added a twist that'll probably never happen: a six-year wait before any Congress member could become a lobbyist.

CALIFORNIA

-- State regulators propose a $1.5-million fine against an irrigation district with senior water rights, a rare move even in  time of drought.

-- The Highway Patrol investigates complaints of sky-high towing fees from people who had to flee their cars in the Cajon Pass fire.

-- A convicted sex offender arrested last week in a sexual assault case in Santa Clarita is in the country illegally and had been released on bail from immigration custody.

-- A man claiming to practice natural medicine is accused of swindling a cancer patient, in part by giving her a baggie of dirt as treatment.

NATION-WORLD

-- The U.N. Security Council unanimously backs the Iran nuclear accord, irritating some members of Congress.

-- Officials and civil rights activists call for a thorough investigation of the death of Sandra Bland in a county jail in Texas after she was stopped for a traffic violation.

-- Three U.S. Navy admirals are forced into retirement over links to a bribery scandal and a colorful Singaporean businessman.

-- A blast kills at least 30 people in a Turkish town near the border with Syria. Islamic State militants are suspected.

BUSINESS

 -- SpaceX founder Elon Musk says a steel strut was the apparent culprit in last month's Falcon 9 rocket failure.

-- In 2013, philanthropist Paula Kent Meehan revoked a $5-million pledge to St. John's Health Center. She has since died. Now, the hospital is suing her estate for the money. 

-- Cheating spouses data breach: Hackers threaten to expose millions of users of AshleyMadison.com.

-- Albertsons sues Haggen over $36 million of inventory as part of the sale of 146 stores in California.

SPORTS

-- Bill Dwyre on the British Open: The grinder beat the kid. Now Zach Johnson has as many major trophies as Jordan Spieth.

-- The latest scores, stats and schedules.

ENTERTAINMENT

-- Movie trailers are becoming their own kind of blockbusters: Studios spent more than $3 billion on them last year.

-- The "Boulevard" filmmaker and cast remember Robin Williams in his final starring role.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- Rolling Stone has the story of a man who has mastered flying around the world, for free.

-- NPR looks into the secret history of black baseball players in Japan.

-- The Statue of Liberty arrived in 350 pieces. Happily, there was also an instruction manual (Smithsonian).

-- The Wall Street Journal looks at research on why student attendance at college football games is plummeting.

ONLY IN L.A.

Susumu Ito wasn't supposed to have a camera on the front lines in Europe during World War II. Happily, he broke the rules. Now, at 96, he has given a remarkable collection of photos to the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. They tell the story of the Army's Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit in U.S. military history. 

Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.