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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. Iran raised the stakes.
The country said it would soon violate a central tenet of the 2015 nuclear deal — limits on how much nuclear fuel it can produce — unless it gets help from Europe to offset American sanctions. Above, the nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, south of Tehran, in 2007.
Iran had continued to abide by the terms of the nuclear deal even after President Trump pulled out last year. Now, it appears to be testing whether the other signatories will stick with the White House, which is calling for greater international pressure on Iran.
2. Xi Jinping’s surprise.
The Chinese president is making a two-day visit to North Korea, his first, starting Thursday.
Though Beijing remains Pyongyang’s most important ally, the two have a fraught relationship. Mr. Kim has visited China four times in the past year, including in January, above.
Some Chinese analysts said Mr. Xi aims to revive disarmament talks between Mr. Trump and Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader. Mr. Xi could present the deal to President Trump, to ease trade tensions, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit meeting at the end of next week.
3. Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, collapsed and died while on trial in Cairo, Egyptian state television reported.
No official cause of death was given, but his supporters blamed prison conditions and said Mr. Morsi, 67, had been denied medicine for diabetes, high blood pressure and liver disease.
It was a somber milestone in the nation’s ill-fated democratic transition after the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011.
Above, Mr. Morsi a few months after becoming president in 2012. He was the first leader of the Muslim Brotherhood to be freely elected president in Arab history, but was removed after only a year in a military takeover.
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4. The Chinese government came out in strong support of Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive.
But it’s unclear how long Carrie Lam will continue to govern. Although she suspended her push for a Beijing-backed extradition bill over the weekend, protesters, including those above early Monday, continued to call for her to kill the legislation and step down.
Hong Kong’s youth are at the forefront of the demonstrations. A rally on Sunday that attracted an estimated two million people was perhaps the largest in the country’s history.
As the young demonstrators see it, they are fighting a “final battle” for some autonomy from China.
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5. The Catholic Church may ordain some married men. In the Amazon.
The Vatican proposed ordaining married, elderly men — “preferably indigenous, respected and accepted members of their community” — to serve indigenous people in the most remote areas in the region. Above, a Catholic pilgrimage in the Amazon in 2012.
While the proposal is a potentially groundbreaking move, Pope Francis has made clear that the church’s broader commitment to priestly celibacy remains intact.
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7. Harvard changed its mind about a Parkland graduate.
Kyle Kashuv, 18, a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who became a gun-rights activist after the mass shooting there last year that killed 17 people, said Harvard College rescinded its admission offer over written remarks he made as a 16-year-old.
He has apologized for the comments. A video of screenshots of his past remarks, including repeated racial slurs, was posted online last month, apparently by at least one former classmate who questioned Harvard’s decision to admit him.
Above, Mr. Kashuv spoke in favor of arming teachers at an N.R.A. convention in April.
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8. Gloria Vanderbilt died at age 95.
She became a fashion icon in the 1970s with her line of designer jeans. She was also an artist, writer, actress and socialite. It was with her fourth husband, the writer Wyatt Cooper, that she had her youngest son, the CNN journalist Anderson Cooper.
A child of wealth and privilege, newspapers called her “a poor little rich girl” in the 1930s when, as a 10-year-old, she was the focus of a sensational custody battle between her mother and an aunt, who ended up raising her.
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9. A “Hunger Games” prequel.
Suzanne Collins is at work on the new novel, as of yet untitled and due in May 2020.
It takes place 64 years before the events of her dystopian young-adult book trilogy, which has sold more than 100 million copies in print and spawned a film series starring Jennifer Lawrence.
In other book news, our critic likes “Big Sky,” the long-overdue fifth book in Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie private eye series, writing that it’s rendered with the author’s “vastly enjoyable nonchalance.”
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10. What’s real? What sells.
Lil Miquela, above right, has 1.6 million Instagram followers. She’s worked with the Italian fashion label Prada and given interviews from Coachella.
But she’s a computer-generated character, one of a growing cadre of virtual influencers being used by the likes of Balmain, Calvin Klein and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
“Social media, to date, has largely been the domain of real humans being fake,” said Alexis Ohanian, a co-founder of Reddit and the self-described grandfather of the character Qai Qai. “But avatars are a future of storytelling.”
Have a mind-blowing evening.
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Source : Nytimes
