Missouri, India, Harriet Tubman: Your Thursday Briefing

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Good morning,

We’re covering Wednesday’s three-minute meeting between President Trump and Democrats, election results in India, and a delay for the $20 bill featuring Harriet Tubman.

Mr. Trump then addressed reporters in the Rose Garden, saying he couldn’t work with the Democrats until they stopped their pursuit of testimony and documents.

News analysis: Ms. Pelosi’s trip to the White House was her second-most important meeting on Wednesday, our reporter writes. Earlier, she urged Democrats to exhaust all legislative and legal avenues before pursuing impeachment.

Related: A federal judge on Wednesday rejected Mr. Trump’s request to block subpoenas for his financial records, the second such ruling this week. Separately, New York lawmakers approved a bill that would allow Congress to obtain the president’s state tax returns.

Another angle: The Justice Department has agreed to begin honoring a subpoena from the House Intelligence Committee for materials related to the special counsel’s investigation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party held a comfortable lead in the country’s parliamentary elections, according to early returns today. Here’s the latest.

If the trend continues, Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party would expand its current majority, a far more dominating performance than many analysts predicted after Mr. Modi appeared to be struggling on economic issues.

Background: Over 39 days, hundreds of millions of voters cast ballots. Turnout reached a record high, with more than 66 percent of eligible voters participating.


High-tech surveillance has turned the western Chinese region of Xinjiang into an incubator for increasingly intrusive policing systems that could spread automated authoritarianism across the country and beyond.

Sophisticated software sorts through billions of records to match faces to names, addresses and identification numbers — as well as family ties and recent visits to places like hotels or internet cafes.

A Times investigation drawing on government and company records found that China was effectively hard-wiring Xinjiang for segregated surveillance by compelling ethnic minorities to submit to monitoring and data collection.

Side effects: Mobile carriers in Britain and Japan were reconsidering their ties to Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant that was blacklisted by the Trump administration last week. Google cut off support to Huawei on Monday.


“Pro-life” or “pro-choice”? “Fetal heartbeat” or “forced pregnancy”? Activists on both sides of the abortion debate have long chosen their words carefully. But the stakes are especially high as the Supreme Court seems poised to chip away at rights established by Roe v. Wade in 1973.

Effective messaging could be the catalyst that mobilizes people on a culture-war battleground where many have already chosen a side, experts say.

The reaction: Hefty tax breaks have helped lure Hollywood to Georgia over the past decade, with productions including “The Walking Dead” and “Stranger Things.” But the state’s passage of a highly restrictive abortion law has put politics on a collision course with economic interests.

Voting begins today for the European Parliament (here’s how it works). The election comes at a time when the Continent’s decades-old project of unity has rarely been more precarious. Above, a market in Kehl, Germany.

Before the vote, our Berlin bureau chief took a 10-day journey to find out what Europe means to Europeans. Her conclusion: “Europe cannot be taken for granted. But neither can its demise.”

Tornadoes in Missouri: At least three people were killed in Golden City on Wednesday, and extensive damage was reported in the state’s capital, Jefferson City. Here’s the latest.

Harriet Tubman bill is delayed: The antislavery activist will not become the face of the $20 bill until after President Trump leaves office, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said.

Slave ship remains: Historians in Alabama have announced that a shipwreck is almost certainly the Clotilda, the last ship known to have brought enslaved people to the U.S., in 1860.

Mario Batali is charged with assault: The celebrity chef faces accusations that he groped and kissed a woman at a Boston restaurant in 2017. His lawyer says he denies the allegation.

No answers on racist photo: Four months after the image in a 1984 yearbook surfaced, investigators have said they could not be sure if it really showed Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia.

Perspective: In an Op-Ed, the Olympic track athlete Allyson Felix discusses the challenges she faced in renewing her contract with Nike after giving birth.

From The Times: We’re restarting our Summer in the City newsletter, which features the season’s best activities in New York. First up: an oasis in the Bronx. Sign up here.

Snapshot: Above, “Smoke and Lovers,” Memphis, 1992. The image is one of many that has featured in Lens, The Times’s photography blog, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Late-night comedy: The hosts addressed President Trump’s claim that he would no longer work with Democrats. “Is he saying that up until this point he was working with the Democrats?” James Corden asked. “The last two years were his version of things going well?”

What we’re listening to: This CBC podcast about Nxivm, a group often described as a sex cult. Claire Moses, an editor in the London newsroom, said it’s “solid journalism” that provided background, insights and accounts from former members to reveal “the psychology behind joining a cult, and how people can end up in these situations.”

Cook: Green goddess salmon with potatoes and snap peas comes together in about a half-hour.

Go: Tilda Swinton makes a foray into art curation with a photography show centered on the gender-defying themes of Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando.”

Read: “The Night Window,” the fifth book in Dean Koontz’s Jane Hawk series, debuts on our hardcover fiction and combined print and e-book fiction best-seller lists.

Listen: European music is more than the glitz of Eurovision. Hear 15 important acts.


Smarter Living: Need help surviving your kid’s sport season? Staying comfortable will help keep you motivated to cheer them on. Our friends at Wirecutter, a New York Times company, suggest packing extra layers of clothing and other necessities — a blanket, hair elastics, bug spray and sunblock. Embrace wide-brimmed hats and a folding chair. And, above all, know you should say only two things after the game: “Did you have fun?” and “I loved watching you play.”

And we have tips on being a supportive partner during pregnancy and beyond.

Observers of Ramadan participate in a variety of traditions. One that spans cultures is the way the daily fast is broken: with a date.

The date crop has flourished in the Middle East for thousands of years. It appears at least 20 times in the Quran and hadith, a collection of sayings and traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad and other early Muslims. Muhammad suggested starting each day by eating seven dates.

There’s also a nutritional component. After a long day without water or food — sometimes up to 20 hours, depending on the region — it’s not advisable to immediately gorge.

Nazima Qureshi, a nutritionist who observes Ramadan, said that dates offered electrolytes, including potassium (more than in a banana), magnesium and calcium, as well as fiber, which is filling.

They also have a low glycemic index, making them a great natural sweetener for desserts like stuffed dates and coconut date balls.


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

— Chris and Inyoung


Thank you
To Mark Josephson, Eleanor Stanford, Chris Harcum and Kenneth R. Rosen for the break from the news. Melina Delkic, on the briefings team, 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 President Trump’s relationship with Deutsche Bank.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Cold treat that comes in a swirl (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The Times has named Matina Stevis-Gridneff, formerly of The Wall Street Journal, as Brussels correspondent, joining the team covering the European Union.



Source : Nytimes