Ilhan Omar, Martha McSally, LeBron James: Your Thursday Briefing

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Good morning,

We start today with a historic trade deficit for the U.S., a shift for Facebook and a look at the last Blockbuster video store.

The U.S. imported a record amount of products last year, widening its trade deficit in goods to its highest level in history, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday.

The trade deficit is the difference between how much a country sells to trading partners and how much it buys. President Trump has focused on narrowing that gap, which he considers a measure of whether other countries are taking advantage of the U.S. Few economists share that view.

The details: The increase was driven by a global economic slowdown and the relative strength of the dollar. It was exacerbated by Mr. Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut, which left Americans more money to buy imported goods.

After a wave of scandals, the world’s largest social network will prioritize private, encrypted communication in small groups, a sharp turn from the sort of public sharing it was built on.

“I believe a privacy-focused communications platform will become even more important than today’s open platforms,” Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said in a blog post.

What’s next: Mr. Zuckerberg was vague on many details of the shift, including how long it would take, but he said it would partly be achieved by integrating Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, which historically have been operated autonomously.

After an internal backlash, the party’s leaders in the House have postponed a vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism, which was widely seen as a response to an anti-Israel remark from Representative Ilhan Omar.

The controversy has largely overshadowed Democrats’ legislative efforts in the past month, although the House is planning to vote this week on the For the People Act, a collection of anticorruption proposals. Here’s a look at what’s in the bill.

Yesterday: The Democratic National Committee barred Fox News from hosting or televising debates for the party’s 2020 primary, citing the network’s “inappropriate relationship” with President Trump.

Related: The pieces for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign are falling into place, and could make him a clear front-runner for the 2020 Democratic nomination. The only thing missing? Mr. Biden’s decision to run.

As fertility rates across the U.S. decline, some of the largest drops have been among Hispanics. The birthrate for Hispanic women fell 31 percent from 2007 to 2017.

The decline has been driven in part, demographers say, by generational differences. Hispanic women born in the U.S. are less likely to be poor and more likely to be educated than their immigrant mothers or grandmothers, according to the Pew Research Center. Many are delaying childbearing to finish school and start careers, just like other American-born women.

Voices: “One thing my parents instilled in me was to get an education, don’t get married and have kids right away,” said Mayra Ramirez, 29, of Franklinton, N.C.

More Michael Cohen documents: President Trump’s former lawyer has provided new information to Congress in an effort to back up his claims that Mr. Trump’s lawyers helped alter a false statement Mr. Cohen gave to lawmakers in 2017.

Lawmaker’s rape allegation: Senator Martha McSally, Republican of Arizona and the first woman in the Air Force to fly in combat, has testified in Congress that she was raped by a superior officer.

Clash over border security: During a hearing in the House, Kirstjen Nielsen, the Homeland Security secretary, faced criticism of the Trump administration’s treatment of migrant families at the border and its claims of a national emergency.

Financial deregulation: Federal regulators have moved to ease oversight of large banks and other financial firms, continuing a push by the Trump administration to reverse rules put in place after the 2008 financial crisis.

Celebrity chef exits: Mario Batali, facing accusations of sexual misconduct, has been bought out by his restaurant partners.

Tesla’s new strategy: The electric-car maker’s shift to online-only sales, after a push to open dealerships, has raised questions about its outlook.

Snapshot: Above, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, when he passed Michael Jordan to become No. 4 on the list of the N.B.A.’s leading scorers. James, who wears No. 23 because of Jordan, has 32,311 points in his career.

Artifact is recovered: Acting on a tip, the police in Ireland have recovered a mummified head believed to belong to an 800-year-old Crusader knight that was stolen from a medieval church crypt.

Late-night comedy: “With all the terrible things going on right now, this year for Lent I’m not giving up anything,” Jimmy Kimmel said. “I’m just giving up, in general.”

What we’re reading: This article in The New Yorker. Steven Erlanger, the chief diplomatic correspondent for Europe, writes: “If you think Fox News is ‘fair and balanced,’ Jane Mayer’s reporting on the organization’s handling of President Trump will have you think again.”

Cook: Match sweet, tangy citrus with peanuts and avocado for a satisfying salad.

Listen: “Jerrod,” an invitation to a timid lover from Solange’s new album, “When I Get Home,” has an insistent, syncopated pulse, writes Jon Pareles.

Go: The fourth wall breaks in “Suicide Forest,” a play about Japanese-American identity, revealing something so heart-stingingly tender that the whole work shifts. It’s being performed at the Bushwick Starr in Brooklyn.

Read: The writer and illustrator Lucy Knisley explores fertility and complications during pregnancy in her memoir “Kid Gloves,” new this week on our paperback nonfiction best-seller list.

Smarter Living: March is Women’s History Month, all the more reason to look at travel tours led by and for women. Travel agents have seen a big uptick in interest since the start of the #MeToo movement, and the participants may be able to bond over stories of struggle and passion. We’ve highlighted four.

Also, if your office has free snacks, we’ve collected some wide-ranging examples of how your peers are turning them into meals.

If you’re about to open a can of something tasty, thank the French.

In the late 1700s, Napoleon was on the move, invading Italy, Austria and Egypt. Feeding his enormous armies was a problem — he needed a way to keep food from spoiling.

A confectioner, Nicolas Appert, spent years coming up with a successful process. He placed fruits, vegetables and meats in glass bottles, corked and wired them, then boiled the bottles for hours. He didn’t know he was killing microbes — he just knew that the more heat and less air, the better.

By 1810, Napoleon’s government handed him a 12,000-franc prize and required him to publish a book, with the catchy title “The Art of Preserving Animal and Vegetable Substances for Many Years.”

Glass, unfortunately, breaks. It was the British who developed the tin can.

We end today on a somber note: Alex Trebek, the longtime host of “Jeopardy!”, announced on Wednesday that he has Stage IV pancreatic cancer. “I’m going to fight this,” Mr. Trebek, 78, said. “And I’m going to keep working.”

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

— Chris and Inyoung

Thank you
To Eleanor Stanford, Chris Harcum and Mark Josephson for the break from the news. James K. Williamson put together Smarter Living and also wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Today’s episode is about the Green New Deal.
• Here’s today’s mini crossword puzzle, and a clue: “Notorious” nickname on the Supreme Court (3 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• NYT Cooking, a subscription service of The New York Times, has a guide to making and canning jam (in glass jars).



Source : Nytimes

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