U.K.-Hong Kong, U.S. Protests, Travel: Your Thursday Briefing

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Good morning.

We’re covering Boris Johnson’s offer to Hong Kongers, expanded charges against Minneapolis police officers and efforts to rebuild trust in flying.

Mr. Johnson’s offer opens the door to a significant influx of people fleeing Hong Kong should the situation in the territory deteriorate further. But it leaves unanswered thorny questions about how difficult it would be for these arrivals to obtain British citizenship.

China rejected the idea, declaring Britain has no right to make such an offer to Hong Kong residents who are Chinese nationals.

Confident China: Despite retaliatory moves, Beijing sees its position as strong while the rest of the world is divided and still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S., for one, will hurt itself more by coming down hard against Hong Kong, officials believe.

U.S.-China flights: Beijing appeared to retreat partially from a dispute over air travel, saying it would allow limited flights by international carriers to resume after the White House threatened to block Chinese passenger jets from flying to the U.S.

Tiananmen Square: Today is the anniversary of the massacre there, and also the first time that the authorities in Hong Kong have prohibited a vigil to remember those killed in Beijing’s crackdown. Our photos take you back to 1989. Vigils are expected today despite the ban.

More police charges in Floyd death, more U.S. unrest

The three Minneapolis police officers who failed to intervene while George Floyd was killed were charged with aiding in his death, and officials pressed a more severe charge — second-degree murder — against the officer who used his knee to pin Mr. Floyd to the ground for nearly nine minutes.

On the ninth straight night of demonstrations over the killing, thousands of people amassed in several cities, issuing intensifying calls for changes to American policing.

In Washington, the military took subtle exception to President Trump’s approach. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that active-duty military troops should not be sent to control the wave of protests, at least for now, a position at odds with his commander in chief.

Dear America: A world transfixed by the U.S. unrest reacted with emotions that range from horror to hope. From a war survivor in Italy to a Kenyan activist raising five children, we collected some of their impressions.

Obama’s support: Former President Barack Obama threw his support behind the efforts of peaceful protesters demanding police reforms during his first on-camera remarks since the wave of protests began.

Can ‘travel bubbles’ build trust in flying?

After months of locked-down borders, countries that have stifled the coronavirus are trying to choreograph a risky dance: bringing visitors back without importing another burst of uncontrolled contagion.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania dropped restrictions for one another on May 15, while keeping out everyone else; Australia and New Zealand are following their path. Denmark and Norway are opening to each other on June 15, but not to Sweden, which had a looser lockdown.

In interviews, travel experts, officials and business leaders describe how they are trying to rebuild the trust that international aviation depends upon.

Venetians fight back: In Italy, an addiction to tourism has priced many residents out of historic centers and crowded out authentic Italian life. With the country’s travel restrictions lifted, residents of Venice want to show that fewer tourists could be good for their city.

Berlin’s restrictions: Germany will lift its travel ban on 29 European countries, including Britain, on June 15 and replace it with advisories. According to the new rules, if regional infections mount, bans to specific countries could be reinstated.

The Arolsen Archives attracted thousands of online volunteers — many stuck at home because of the pandemic lockdown — to work as amateur archivists documenting Nazi atrocities. To date, they have added over 120,000 names, birth dates and prisoner numbers to the “Every Name Counts” project.

For descendants, relatives, historians and curious members of the public, the online collection is a singular resource. “No one can overstate the importance of that archive,” said a Holocaust historian at the City University of New York. “It’s quintessential.”

Here’s what else is happening

McCann case: A German sex offender who lived in Portugal on and off from 1995 to 2007 is under investigation on suspicion of murder in the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a British 3-year-old who disappeared from a hotel room in Portugal, the authorities said. The man, who was not named, is in prison on an unrelated sentence.

Vaccines: The Trump administration selected five companies as the most likely to produce a vaccine for the coronavirus, down from a pool of about 12. They are Moderna, a biotech firm; the combination of Oxford University and AstraZeneca; and the pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Pfizer.

Deutsche Bank: New York banking regulators have spent months investigating the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s dealings with Deutsche Bank, which lent money to him and held dozens of accounts for him until shortly before he died.

Cyclone Nisarga: A powerful storm made landfall with unusual force in the state of Maharashtra, home to Mumbai, India, with a population of about 20 million. But as the cyclone moved inland, the authorities said the city might have averted the worst.

Snapshot: Above, Amsterdam’s red-light district, home to the city’s vast population of sex workers. The district is still closed, though the rest of the city is reopening. Many of the workers are concerned they will fall into poverty. Others are working secretly.

Goal.com: The British sports media company DAZN is in final-stage talks to sell the popular soccer website Goal.com for $125 million to the investment firm TPG as it raises cash for its money-losing sports streaming platform.

Plus: The Bundesliga has now played three dozen games under a coronavirus-inspired protocol. Can it help show leagues around the world how to get back in action?

What we’re reading: This article in Vox on coming out as a transgender woman. “I haven’t read anything that made me feel hopeful in weeks now,” said Taffy Brodesser-Akner, a writer for The Times Magazine. But this piece “reminded me of the optimism of self-discovery that we’re all still capable of, even in terrible times.”

Cook: This potato chip omelet from the chef for El Bulli, the famous restaurant in Spain that closed in 2011, evokes the flavors of a labor-intensive tortilla, but takes only minutes to assemble and cook.

Read: Our reviewer calls Masha Gessen’s new book, “Surviving Autocracy,” a trenchant look at President Trump. Ms. Gessen writes that he was “probably the first major party nominee who ran not for president but for autocrat.”

Listen: We asked Yo-Yo Ma, John Williams, Andrew Lloyd Webber and others to share the cello music that moves them. Listen to their choices.

Remembering Christo: The artist who wrapped urban landscapes on an epic scale died on Sunday at the age of 84. Here’s a look at his grand projects.

At Home has our full collection of ideas on what to read, cook, watch and do while staying safe at home.

And now for the Back Story on …

Feeling lost in the kitchen

Not everyone is using time at home to cultivate a sourdough starter. The food expert Priya Krishna writes for us about how necessity has forced fledgling home cooks to confront their biggest fear: using their kitchens.

The result is a lot of blackened pots and smoke-filled apartments — but also some victories, like fried eggs and a decent carbonara.

Priya tells us about Melissa Hodges, for instance, a 22-year-old who thought it would be her big opportunity to learn to cook. Then she tried to heat up a frozen cheese pizza.

“I stuck it in the oven at a random temperature because I didn’t bother to read the instructions,” Ms. Hodges recalled. “About 20 minutes in, it fell through the cracks of my oven.” The result was both doughy and charred.

Another challenge to overcome is a lack of enthusiasm for cooking.

“I don’t want to feed my son chicken tenders and frozen pizzas,” Miranda Richardson, a police administrator, told Priya. But what she chooses to make instead may not pass muster with him. “Kids tell the truth when they don’t like food.”

She said she is actually a good cook — she recently made a vanilla cake — but still dislikes cooking. “Being in that kitchen just does not make me happy,” she said.

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

— Victoria

Thank you
To Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh for the rest of the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is an interview with the mayor of Minneapolis.
• Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Grouping at a wedding reception (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• Opinion’s Jennifer Senior recently spoke on KCRW and KCBS Radio, as well as CNN’s Reliable Sources, about President Trump and his response to the coronavirus pandemic.