Security Clearance, Chicago, Nipsey Hussle: Your Tuesday Briefing

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good morning,

We’re covering a White House whistle-blower’s account of security clearance irregularities, intensifying scrutiny on Joe Biden, and a rash of racehorse deaths at a track in California.

Businesses get an early start on Brexit

Politicians might not have figured out Britain’s departure from the European Union, but for much of the business world, Brexit has effectively happened.

Banks and other financial services companies have shifted jobs and assets to the Continent, and Japanese automakers have scrapped expansion plans. Whatever comes next, the jobs and money are unlikely to return.

Yesterday: Parliament failed to reach a majority on any one of four Brexit proposals, less than two weeks before the departure deadline.

What’s next: Prime Minister Theresa May is likely to seek another vote this week on her thrice-rejected plan. By April 10, Mrs. May needs to either get an agreement through Parliament or ask the European Union for a longer delay if she wants to avoid leaving without a deal.

New scrutiny on White House clearances

Senior Trump administration officials granted security clearances to at least 25 people whose applications had been denied by career civil servants for “disqualifying issues,” a White House whistle-blower has told Congress.

The whistle-blower, Tricia Newbold, is a manager in the Personnel Security Office. She told a House committee last month that two current senior White House officials were among those who had been rejected, according to a memo that the committee’s Democratic staff released on Monday. (Read the memo.)

The memo doesn’t identify any of the 25. The Times reported in February that President Trump had ordered his chief of staff, John Kelly, to grant clearance last year to Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law.

Response: The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Congressional Republicans accused Representative Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, of cherry-picking from Ms. Newbold’s interview.

Go deeper: Ms. Newbold, who has worked in the White House for 18 years, said she chose to speak to the committee after attempts to raise concerns internally went nowhere.

Second woman says Joe Biden made her uncomfortable

Scrutiny of the former vice president intensified on Monday after a woman said he “put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me” at a fund-raiser in Connecticut in 2009.

The allegation by Amy Lappos is similar to one made last week by a former Nevada lawmaker, Lucy Flores, and comes as Mr. Biden prepares for a presidential bid.

Response: Mr. Biden’s spokesman, Bill Russo, criticized what he said were misrepresentations of Mr. Biden’s past behavior and sought to link some of the attacks to Republicans.

Remember Virginia?

A racist photograph in a yearbook. Accusations of sexual assault. An appearance in blackface at a college party.

Over the course of a week in February, revelations about the state’s top three elected officials seemed to threaten their political futures. But calls for resignations have faded, and Gov. Ralph Northam and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax have increasingly returned to the public eye.

Some Virginians say the crisis burned itself out by the time the legislature adjourned, while polls showed voters were less enthusiastic about resignations than their representatives were. Our correspondent reports from Richmond.

Quotable: “Don’t apologize, move on, and everybody will talk about something else next week,” one Democratic strategist said. “Maybe we’ve been doing it wrong over the last 100 years.”

Taylor Mac has challenged audiences with his masterwork, “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music.” The one-man, 24-hour show covers 246 songs from revolutionary times to the present, mixing maximalist, spectacular outfits and revisionist American history.

The 45-year-old artist, pictured above, is now translating his genius for Broadway in a new play, “Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus.”

Here’s what else is happening

Emergency aid is stalled: The Senate voted down two disaster relief bills on Monday as Republicans and Democrats clashed over President Trump’s opposition to more help for Puerto Rico.

Elections in Turkey: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party said it would challenge the results after completed ballot counting confirmed today that it had lost control of Turkey’s two largest cities, Ankara and Istanbul.

Chicago mayoral vote: Two African-American women, Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle, are in a runoff today. The city will become the largest in the U.S. to elect a black woman as its mayor.

Suspect in rapper’s death: The Los Angeles police have identified a suspect in the fatal shooting of Nipsey Hussle over the weekend. On Monday, at least 19 people were injured during a stampede at a makeshift memorial.

Snapshot: Above, cherry trees in Washington on Monday, the day that the blooms were at their peak, according to the National Park Service.

N.C.A.A. basketball: The women’s Final Four is set. Baylor will face Oregon, and Notre Dame will play Connecticut on Friday.

Horse racing deaths: Twenty-three horses have died since late December at Santa Anita Park, near Los Angeles, endangering the future of horse racing in California.

Late-night comedy: “Today was April Fools’ Day, so if you saw anything in the news that was positive, that’s why,” Seth Meyers said.

What we’re reading: This piece in Edible Queens. Dan Saltzstein, editorial director for special projects, recommends it, writing: “I adore the Queens Thai restaurant SriPraPhai. This year, it finally got a James Beard Award nomination. I also adore the 75-year-old owner’s modest reaction to the honor.”

Now, a break from the news

Cook: A dinner of roasted fish with sweet peppers keeps dishwashing to a minimum. (Our Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter has more recommendations.)

Watch: “Dumbo,” Tim Burton’s live-action remake of the Disney tale of the airborne baby elephant, “takes a turn toward the fascinatingly weird,” our critic writes.

Read: A history of the 1969 moon landing and a new novel from Sally Rooney, the author of “Conversations With Friends,” are among the 10 books to watch for this month.

Listen: Still thinking about Jordan Peele’s “Us”? On our “Still Processing” podcast, two Times reporters, Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris, discuss the film’s central question (without spoilers): Are any of us ever truly free from the past?

Smarter Living: Bored with the same old same-old? Behavioral scientists have found ways to make everyday experiences feel new again. Try changing the layout of your desk, or shifting from your home office to a coffee shop or a library. Less routine means more room for a fresh sense of gratification.

And a healthy diet can do more to counter cognitive decline, neurologists say, than dietary supplements.

And now for the Back Story on …

The difference between rhinos

We often ask readers for Back Story ideas. Zach Lewis of Chicago suggested we look at the naming of black and white rhinos, both of which are in fact gray.

They have different faces. The black rhino, which tends to eat trees and bushes, has a pointed upper lip, while the grass-grazing white rhino has a broader one.

In 2003, Kees Rookmaaker, a rhino researcher, analyzed 10 theories about the names.

A popular idea was that the Afrikaans word “wyd,” or Dutch “wijd,” meaning “wide,” became “white.” “Black” was simply an easy contrast.

Some other theories: The grazing rhino looked white in grasslands; it rolled in lighter mud or was often covered in bird droppings; albinism is more common among white rhinos; and that at some point, the rhinos were noticeably lighter and darker.

The mistranslation theory was the one he found least likely. “There is no record of ‘wydrhinoceros’ in the literature,” he emailed recently, noting that Dutch speakers would have used “breed,” meaning “broad,” rather than “wijd.”

Speaking of eye-catching fauna, a new species of tarantula has become a scientific celebrity. But the discovery has renewed an old ethical debate about specimen collection and “biopiracy.”

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

— Chris

Thank you
To Mark Josephson, Eleanor Stanford and James K. Williamson for the break from the news. Inyoung Kang, a home screen editor based in London, 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 persistent racial divide in New York City’s public school system.
• Here’s today’s mini crossword puzzle, and a clue: Seafood specialty of Maryland (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The Times’s Sports section is adding two staff members: David Chen, from our Metro section, as an investigative reporter, and Sopan Deb, from our Culture section, to cover the N.B.A.