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Another attempt in Parliament to control the Brexit process, a special look at Indian elections and a global search for “Salvator Mundi.” Here’s the latest:
Brexit puts British democracy on trial
Late Monday in Britain, lawmakers will try again to come up with an alternative to Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan, which they have now rejected three times.
Chances of success appear minimal. None of the eight options that were on the table last week managed to fetch a majority in Parliament, and fewer are likely to be considered in this round.
Failure would leave the country with two unappealing options: leave the E.U. in a little over a week without a deal or delay Brexit further.
Analysis: “In interviews, many Britons expressed despair over the inability of the political system to produce a compromise,” our London correspondents Ellen Barry and Benjamin Mueller write. “No one feels that the government has represented their interests. No one is satisfied. No one is hopeful.
“It has amounted to a hollowing out of confidence in democracy itself.”
The winners: One industry that seems to be booming amid the Brexit chaos: law firms dealing with client concerns about the legal ramifications of the divorce with the E.U.
In recent weeks, Border Patrol facilities have been strained by an influx of migrants — the largest annual surge in years — ahead of the arrival of the deadly summer heat.
Impact: Sealing the border would effectively close off the U.S. from one of its largest trading partners, and could leave American citizens who travel back and forth stuck in limbo.
Conditions: Processing stations across the 1,900-mile border with Mexico were not expanded despite projections of the influx, and makeshift additions have been overwhelmed.
“This place looks like a concentration camp and we’re not supposed to have that in America,” said an American trying to offer help to migrants being held under a bridge in El Paso, Tex.
If the two countries move ahead, their regulations could serve as models for the rest of the world amid growing frustration and anger with Silicon Valley giants.
But the efforts walk a fine line between intervention and censorship. For established democracies that cherish free speech, China’s sophisticated system of suppressing online content could be seen as a cautionary tale.
Over the weekend: Social media companies are themselves beginning to converge around the need for new rules. Mark Zuckerberg invited Congress to regulate Facebook and other social media networks in an opinion piece for The Washington Post. He suggested they focus on harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability.
Spotlight: India’s elections
With around 900 million voters, almost 2,000 registered parties and five weeks of voting, the Indian elections can seem cacophonous. Even for your briefing writer, a diaspora Indian, they’re difficult to follow. The country’s myriad states, cultures and socioeconomic segments can’t be sliced into left or right, red or blue. It’s a kaleidoscope, and each prism illuminates a different aspect of the political spectrum.
But it is also heartening to watch this young democracy exercising a right denied to many in the surrounding region. And it is important: What happens in India can end up shifting the global economy and geopolitical landscape.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party are seeking to retain power, facing a surging challenge by the opposition Congress Party. The briefing will be regularly unpacking aspects of the race. Voting unfolds from from April 11 until May 19 and results are announced on May 23.
For now, keep in mind that the backdrop for the campaigning is a flammable mix of economic, religious and national security issues. Unemployment is high, sectarian violence has risen, farmers across the country are increasingly frustrated and there’s a broad disillusionment with politicians.
Send us your feedback and any questions you have about the elections here.
Here’s what else is happening
Jeff Bezos: The Amazon founder’s security consultant accused the Saudi government of hacking Mr. Bezos’ phone, motivated by the aggressive coverage in The Washington Post, which Mr. Bezos also owns, of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The consultant provided no evidence but said he had turned his findings over to law enforcement.
Boeing 737: Black box data from the doomed Ethiopian Airlines flight suggests that a faulty sensor that erroneously activated an automated stabilizing system on the jet caused the crash, a sequence also suspected in the crash of a Lion Air flight in October.
Joe Biden: The former vice president, accused of touching and kissing a Nevada candidate just before appearing in support of her political campaign in 2014, released a statement saying he didn’t believe he acted inappropriately but admitted to making “expressions of affection” on the campaign trail. He is expected to announce whether he will run for president soon.
Arctic drilling: A U.S. federal judge ruled that President Trump’s executive order to lift an Obama-era ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean was unlawful, keeping the drilling ban in “full force” and hindering Mr. Trump’s efforts to undo his predecessor’s environmental legacy.
“Salvator Mundi”: The location of the famed painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci has been a mystery since last year, shortly after a Saudi royal, most likely the crown prince, paid $450 million for it.
The Kardashians: For more than a decade, the family has turned its feuding on reality TV into business opportunities. “People don’t know how much work goes into it,” the family matriarch, Kris Jenner, said in an interview with The Times.
111 years young: Two British men, Alfred Smith and Bob Weighton, have lived through two world wars, more than 20 prime ministers and the entire rule of Queen Elizabeth II. Their advice for longevity? “Avoid dying,” and “porridge is helpful.”
Smarter Living
Tips for a more fulfilling life.
Walter Gropius, the architect who established the school in 1919 in Weimar, Germany, wrote in the Bauhaus’s program that the ultimate aim was the “unified work of art.”
And he enlisted masters of various artistic disciplines, such as Wassily Kandinsky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Paul Klee, to join the Bauhaus faculty.
The school survived for little more than a decade before it was shut down in 1933 under pressure from the Nazis.
But its legacy of uniting art and functional design in everyday life is long-lasting, and Bauhaus principles were spread worldwide.
Anna Schaverien, from our London newsroom, wrote today’s Back Story.
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Source : Nytimes
