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Good morning.
We’re covering the Conservative leadership election in Britain, President Trump’s meeting with Pakistan’s prime minister and the protests in Puerto Rico.
New British prime minister to be announced
The Conservative Party today will announce its new leader, who will replace Theresa May as prime minister on Wednesday.
The pound has sunk to two-year lows, dipping below $1.24 last week, as it has become increasingly likely that Boris Johnson, a hard-line Brexiteer, will be the one to navigate Britain’s departure from the E.U. Some fear Brexit could set off economic chaos, deal or no deal.
Mr. Johnson would also have to face another complication: Jo Swinson, a 39-year-old Scottish lawmaker, who on Monday took over leadership of the Liberal Democrats, a party that opposes Brexit. She could become a kingmaker in the coming months as the Conservatives try to tackle Brexit with a razor-thin majority in Parliament.
The Daily: Our latest episode is about how Mr. Johnson made Brexit and how Brexit is now making him prime minister.
In Spain: Pedro Sánchez and his Socialist party, whose victory in April was a rare vote of confidence in the E.U., are struggling to assemble a governing coalition. In a speech, Mr. Sánchez said the constitution should be changed to make it easier to form a government and avoid plunging the nation into another lengthy political deadlock.
President Trump welcomes Pakistan’s leader
Mr. Trump met with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the Oval Office, where the president offered improved relations and trade between the two nations in exchange for Pakistan’s help in negotiating a permanent cease-fire in Afghanistan.
The president has repeatedly discussed his goals to bring American forces home from Afghanistan and end the nearly 18-year war, but relations between Pakistan’s intelligence service and extremists have thwarted hopes of a peaceful regional solution.
Background: For years, the U.S. and Pakistan have endured strained ties because of Pakistan’s connections to extremist groups and its unwillingness to cooperate in campaigns against terrorist groups after the Sept. 11 attacks. The rift deepened last year when Mr. Trump suspended security aid to Pakistan, with a demand that its government sever ties with extremists.
Voices: “I could win that war in a week. I just don’t want to kill 10 million people,” Mr. Trump said of the conflict in Afghanistan, describing what he said were prepared military plans. “If I wanted to win that war, Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the earth.”
Gulf states vie for power in Somalia
Over the past two years, the war-torn nation has emerged as a central battleground for Persian Gulf states competing with guns, cash and terrorism for power and profits across the Horn of Africa.
The United Arab Emirates and Qatar are each providing weapons or military training to favored factions, exchanging allegations about bribing local officials and competing for contracts to manage ports or exploit natural resources.
How we know: Our reporters obtained a recording of a phone call with the Qatari ambassador to Somalia, in which a businessman close to the emir of Qatar said that militants had carried out a bombing in the Somali city of Bosaso to advance Qatari interests and drive out the U.A.E.
Puerto Rico erupts in protest
Hundreds of thousands of protesters coursed through the streets of San Juan, demanding that Gov. Ricardo Rosselló resign and paralyzing much of the capital.
In one of the largest protests ever seen on the island, Puerto Ricans shut down a major highway. Elsewhere, the biggest shopping mall in San Juan and some banks were closed, university classes were canceled and cruise ships were turned away. Watch footage of the protests here.
Background: The demonstrations started more than a week ago after the publication of 889 pages of leaked text messages between the governor and his closest aides, revealing a cozy relationship with special interest representatives.
It was the final straw for Puerto Ricans, who in the past decade have suffered through unemployment, government-imposed austerity measures and the devastation of Hurricane Maria. Some see this crisis as a chance to rethink the U.S. territory’s domestic power structure, which has long been controlled by two political parties.
Outreach: The Times wants to hear from Puerto Ricans about how decades of economic problems have affected you and your family.
If you have the time, this is worth it
The economic roots of Hong Kong’s protests
The huge protests this summer against mainland China have fueled one of Hong Kong’s worst political crises, but beneath them is an undercurrent of deep anxiety over residents’ economic fortunes.
The gap between the rich and the poor is at its widest in almost half a century, and nearly one in five people live in poverty. Pro-democracy activists believe that direct elections would give them a greater say in Hong Kong’s crucial economic decisions, although some pro-Beijing officials see greater gains from more integration with the mainland.
Here’s what else is happening
Ukraine: President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has vowed to take on endemic corruption, was on track on Monday to become the country’s first post-Soviet chief to enjoy an outright parliamentary majority.
Greece: The new prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said he would undo a longstanding law barring the police from universities. The law was passed to safeguard students and freedom of speech, but critics say it has been exploited by professed anarchists and other militants.
What we’re reading: This essay in The New York Review of Books. Adeel Hassan, on our Race/Related team, writes: “Recent prosecutions in the U.S. and Europe of those helping desperate migrants inspired the historian Manisha Sinha to look at the similarities to the legal penalties incurred by those who helped fugitive slaves in 19th-century America.”
Now, a break from the news
Cook: Jalapeño adds a kick to pasta with corn, feta and basil. (Our Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter has more recommendations.)
Watch: A father asks: Why is finding a decent show to watch with my daughter so hard? Our TV critic offers suggestions in response to this and other reader questions.
Listen: “Stranger Things” Season 3 is a portal to 1985. Listen to a playlist of songs from the summer that brought Prince’s “Raspberry Beret” and Aretha Franklin’s “Freeway of Love.”
Read: In “The Nickel Boys,” Colson Whitehead continues to make a classic American genre his own, our reviewer writes.
Smarter Living: Trade wars, climate change and slowing economic growth can mean trouble for investors. The risk-tolerant can gamble that further bad indicators will persuade the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, bumping up stocks. But the rest of us might take the three-part approach to financial stability recommended by Ramit Sethi, the author of “I Will Teach You to Be Rich”: “conscious spending,” automatic savings and an understanding of why you are investing.
And we look at how real estate brokers and marketers track stressed homeowners in ways that some find predatory.
And now for the Back Story on …
Daniel Radcliffe after Harry Potter
He will forever be a cute kid wizard for a certain generation.
But members of that generation might be feeling their age today: Daniel Radcliffe, the British actor who for a decade brought the J.K. Rowling character to the silver screen, is turning 30.
He’s hardly been idle. In the eight years since the release of the last “Harry Potter” film, Mr. Radcliffe has appeared in at least 14 movies, six TV shows and five theater productions.
He’s also became a published poet under the pen name Jacob Gershon; had his portrait hung in the National Portrait Gallery in London; and voiced characters in “The Simpsons,” “Robot Chicken” and “Bojack Horseman.”
On the BBC show “Who Do You Think You Are?” this week, he broke down in tears reading the suicide note left by his great-grandfather Samuel Gershon, a Jewish jeweler in London. He killed himself in 1936 at age 42, possibly after anti-Semitic accusations by the police.
In Mr. Radcliffe’s next film, “Escape From Pretoria,” he plays an anti-apartheid activist jailed with other white political prisoners in South Africa.
That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.
— Matthew
Thank you
To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Victoria Shannon, on the briefings team, wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.
P.S.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Thick Japanese noodle (four letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The New York Times’s technology reporting team is adding Davey Alba, who won an award in international reporting for a BuzzFeed article about how President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines used Facebook.
Source : Nytimes
