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Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. President Trump called for an investigation into financial ties between China and the family of former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic front-runner in the 2020 race.
The Bidens have denied accusations raised by a conservative author, Peter Schweizer, that Mr. Biden’s younger son, Hunter, made millions from the Chinese government as his father was negotiating with Chinese officials over government issues. It may come up at Mr. Trump’s rally this evening in Pennsylvania, pictured above.
Mr. Trump has threatened investigations of Hillary Clinton and James Comey in the past. When Donald McGahn served as White House counsel, he cautioned the president that asking law enforcement to investigate rivals would be an abuse of power and could expose him to charges of impeachment.
2. The Chinese telecom giant Huawei is getting frozen out in a technology Cold War.
Google, whose Android software powers Huawei’s smartphones, is limiting support to the company following a White House order last week.
Several chip-makers are also cutting Huawei off. Other companies will inevitably follow, our New New World columnist writes. Above, a scene from Beijing today.
Investors weren’t happy. Tech shares — including in Google’s parent, Alphabet, as well as in Apple and Qualcomm — led the broader U.S. stock market lower.
The Chinese government suggested Huawei could take up a legal challenge.
3. Tornadoes are forecast to strike northwest Texas and western and central Oklahoma overnight.
More than two million people lie in the path of storms that could produce the violent, large-scale tornadoes along with baseball-sized hail, flash flooding and hurricane-force winds.
The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., above, announced a “high risk” zone for potentially catastrophic tornadoes, the first time it has done so in two years.
The towns of Childress, Haskell and Snyder in Texas and Oklahoma City, Norman, Lawton and Moore in Oklahoma are in the high-risk zone.
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4. The E.P.A.’s new math.
A planned shift in the way the agency calculates health risks would sharply lower the number of future deaths estimated from air pollution, according to five current and former E.P.A. officials.
They said the change would help the Trump administration justify the elimination of the Clean Power Plan, former President Barack Obama’s signature climate measure.
Experts say the new modeling method discards more than a decade of peer-reviewed methods for understanding the hazards of the fine particulate matter produced by burning fossil fuels. Above, a coal-burning power plant in North Dakota.
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5. Earthworms disappeared from most of northern North America during the ice age about 10,000 years ago.
Now, a species introduced from southern Europe centuries ago is making its way back, spread by roads, commerce, boats and even gardeners.
As the worms feed, they release carbon stored in the forest floor. Climate scientists are worried they could convert the boreal forest, now a carbon sponge ringing the top of the globe, into a carbon spout.
6. Kris Kobach has a few small demands for Donald Trump if the president wants the former Kansas secretary of state to be the nation’s “immigration czar.”
A staff of seven. “Walk in” privileges to the Oval Office, a security detail if necessary, and the title of “assistant to the president.” An office in the West Wing, and weekends off for family time. There’s a total of 10 conditions on his list, which our reporters obtained. Above, Mr. Kobach in November, conceding in the Kansas governor’s race.
Some administration officials were taken aback by his demands, but they underscore the clout Mr. Kobach hopes to have in a job that would not require Senate confirmation. Mr. Trump has also been considering others for the role, including Ken Cuccinelli, the former Virginia attorney general.
Meanwhile, a 16-year-old boy became the third child from Guatemala to die in the custody of Customs and Border Protection since December.
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7. The $26 billion merger of Sprint and T-Mobile is a step closer.
The head of the F.C.C., Ajit Pai, endorsed the combination as in the public interest, citing the companies’ commitments on expanding rural broadband access and advancing the next generation of cellphone technology, 5G.
But will the Justice Department, which focuses on whether the deal would harm competition, go along? Its decision is expected in coming weeks.
The merger would challenge the top two U.S. wireless providers, Verizon and AT&T.
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8. The world’s biggest parliamentary election appears poised to bring back Prime Minister Narendra Modi, extending the wave of victories by right-wing populists around the world.
India’s election finished on Sunday, and exit polls show support for his Bharatiya Janata Party. The final results are scheduled to be announced Thursday.
Ashutosh Varshney, a South Asia expert at Brown University, said that Mr. Modi was following a common populist model: “projecting resolve, masculinity, determination, daring and courage.”
Others drew parallels with President Trump.
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9. “I just started branching out into different creative outlets. That’s what makes me happy.”
In an exclusive interview, Rihanna gave us an exclusive first look at Fenty, the fashion line she launches this week in partnership with LVMH.
The pop singer and entrepreneur wants to revolutionize the luxury distribution model by focusing on direct-to-consumer online sales.
Sales begin at a pop-up in Paris on May 24 and then go online at fenty.com five days later.
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10. There weren’t any stray coffee cups.
Instead, an anachronistic water bottle appeared in Winterfell during the series finale of “Game of Thrones.”
That was just one of the issues fans had. Social media and professional critics both took away nuggets of satisfaction from the ending, but many said it did little to wipe away the problems that plagued the last season.
We still have questions — nine, to be precise — but winter is over.
Have a peaceful evening.
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Source : Nytimes
